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"i umTED STATES OF AMERICA. 



OBSERVATIONS 

ON THE POTATOE, 

AND A 

REMEDY FOR THE POTATOE PLAGUE. 

IN TWO PARTS. 

CONTAINING A 

HISTORY OE THE POTATOE, 

ITS CULTIVATION, AND USES, 

ALSO 

A TREATISE ON THE POTATOE MALADY, 

ITS ORIGIN AND APPEARANCES IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, A VIEW OF 

VARIOUS THEORIES CONCERNING IT, WITH THE REMEDIES 

PF.OPOSED, 

AND AN INQUIRY 

INTO THE CAUSES PRODUCING THE DISEASE, WITH DIRECTIONS FOR 
STAYING ITS FURTHER PROGRESS. 



BY CHAELES P. BOSSON, 

Member of the Massachusetta Horticultural Society, Editor of the N. E. Agriculturist, 
Author of a Treatise on the Sugar Beet, etc., etc. 



BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY E. L. PRATT. 

1846. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, 

By E. L. PEATT, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Coui't of the District of Massachusetts. 



Boston : 

Printed by S. N. Dickinson & Co. 

No. 52 Washington St 






■x 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Some Account of the Appearance of the Disease in different parts 
of the World. 

Action of the British Govei-nment — Report of the British Commission- 
ers — Proceedings of the French Academy of Arts and Sciences — 
Eeport of Professor Morren — H. S. Thompson on the prevention of 
curl and dry rot in potatoes — experiments with ripe and unripe seed 

— Causes of the disease stated — Conclusions of Mr. Thompson — 
Objections to his theory considered, ...... 57 — 77 

CHAPTER II- 

A View of the different Theories entertained on the Potatoe Plague, 

First symptom of degeneracy of the plant in Scotland — Diseased tu- 
bers examined — Seeds from an over-grown crop will always be a 
diseased crop — Remedy proposed — Raising from the apple — Dis- 
ease supposed to be cai;sed by rust — European pamphlets on this 
subject — Result of chemical investigations — ConversioH of diseased 
potatoes into stai'ch — Evil ascribed to too much moisture — Fungi 
analogous to smut in barley — Remedies against fungus — Disease as- 
cribed to various causes — Professor Liebig's opinion — Ascribed to 
fungus in the leaf — Sporules of fungi — Experiments in planting dis- 
eased potatoes — Disease supposed to attack the stem primarily — 
On new high ground the crop less affected — Opinion of J. E. Tes- 
chemacher — Salt a remedy — Analysis of sea-weed — A. B. Allen's 
opinion — Cause of fungi, and i-emedies proposed, . , . 76 — 94 

CHAPTER III. 

Cause of the Disease and Remedies stated. 

Review of the prevailing theories — The disease exists in the potatoe 

— If fungi is the cause a certain remedy is at hand — Causes of the 
disease — Over Ripening — Over Cultivation — Deteriora- 
tion OF Seed — Carelessness in selecting Seed — Improper 
management in taking up potatoes — An improved method of plant- 
ing — Table — Selecting potatoes for seed, , , . . 95 — 116 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 



CHAPTER I. 

Page 
Some account of the early history of the potatoe — Its introduction 
into Great Britain and other European countries — Extravagant price 
of potatoes, 3 — 7 

CHAPTER II. 

On the Cultivation of the Potatoe. 

When first cultivated as a field crop — Thaer's principles of agricul- 
ture — Classification of varieties — Skin of the potatoe — Color of 
the flesh — Nutiitive matter contained in different sorts — Soils 
— Clearings and marsh lands — Strong land — Setting potatoes — 
Best sort for seed — Comparative value of whole and cut tubers — 
Quantity of produce is in proportion to seed — Plowing the land — 
Manner of setting potatoes — Influence of the weather La planting, 7 — 1-5 

CHAPTER III. 

On Planting Potatoes, Harvesting, Sfc. 

The marking plow — Harrowing — First cultivation — Tenacious and 
wet soils — Efl'ect of cutting off the blossoms — Efiect of cutting off 
the leaves — Digging the crops — Gathering — Potatoes dug in dry 



CONTEKTS. 

weather — In damp weather — Heaps of potatoes — Management of 
the heaps m autumn. 16 — ^20 

CHAPTER IV. 

An Account of Diseases ivhich have previously affected the Crop, and 
the Remedies that have heen found ejfcacious. 

Subject to disease at an early period — The curl — Probable causes of 
the curl — Observations of Mr. Knight — Discovery by Mr. Crozer — 
Failiu-e or taint — The drought of 1S26 — Eemarks of Mr. Shirrefif — 
Deterioratfon of varieties — The potatoe a shortlived plant — Late 
planting recommended by Mr. Knight — Over ripened and under 
ripened seed — Effects of comparative wet and dry soils on whole and 
cut tubers — Scab or ulcerated sm-face — Causes of total or partial 
failure have existed from a very early date — Planting of entire tu- 
bers recommended — Rust, black rust — A description of this disease 
— Cause assigned — Observations on the disease from various author- 
ities — Dr. Van Martins on the epidemic diseases of potatoes — 
ViewsofEev. Mr. Allen, 21—34 

CHAPTER V. 

Various Uses to which Potatoes are applied. 

Comparative value of potatoes and grain — Potatoe flour — Farina in po- 
tatoes — Meal of potatoes may be preserved — Tapioca from potatoes — 
The process described — Potash from potatoe leaves and stalks; Po- 
tatoes for cleaning woollens — Making wine and ardent spirits — Ger- 
man method of making potatoe flour — Method of using potatoes in 
Denmark and Norway, 35 — 42 



PART II. 

THE POTATOE PLAGUE. 

Preliminary Remarks. ■ 

Importance of the subject — Extent of the crop in the United States — 
Review of various theories concerning the malady, . . . 43 — 56 



PREFACE 



Potatoes, as an article of human food, are, next to wheat, 
of the greatest importance in the eye of the political econo- 
mist. From no other crop that can be cultivated, will the 
public derive so much food as from this valuable esculent ; 
and it admits of demonstration, that an acre of potatoes will 
feed double the number of people that can be fed from an 
acre of wheat ; they are relished by every palate, and, it is 
believed, there is hardly a dinner served up in any country 
where they are cultivated, without them. 

An article of such vast importance, — that forms a grand 
staple of our agriculture, — the principal source of national 
wealth, — that forms a prominent article in the diet of every 
individual,, — deserves the particular attention of every one; 
and the object of this treatise is, to collate the most important 
facts in the history of this esculent, as well as the opinions 
and practice of the best cultivators, with regard to its manage- 
ment, the cure of diseases affecting it, and every other item 
of information respecting it that can be turned to profitable 
account by our own farmers. 

But more particularly, and above all, my object has been 



ii - Preface. 

to collect facts, opinions and remedies, on tlie alarming and 
fatal disease tliat now threatens destruction to this universal 
FOOD FOR MAN, and to furnish the conclusion which emi- 
nent practical men have arrived at, both in this country and 
Europe, on the causes of the disease, and the appropriate 
remedy for it. It is believed that a sure remedy has been 
discovered, and the subsequent pages of this book will detail 
such facts as will encourage farmers to proceed with the cul- 
tivation of the potatoe crop in all confidence. 

Independent of the particular object for which this small 
treatise is especially designed, to wit : — the cure of the Po- 
tatoe Plague, farmers will find much valuable information on 
the general cultivation of this crop, which will be valuable 
for reference long after the plague, (may its reign be short ! ) 
has disappeared. 



HISTORY, CULTURE, AND DISEASES OE THE 
POTATOE. 



PART I 



CHAPTER I. 

Some Account of the Early History of the Potatoe ; its In- 
troduction into Great Britain and other European Coun- 
tries. 

The Potatoe now in use, (Solanum tuberosum,) was 
brought to England by the Colonists sent out by Sir Walter 
Raleigh, under the authority of his patent, granted by Queen 
Elizabeth, " for discovering and planting new countries, not 
possessed by Christians," which passed the great seal in 
1584. Some of Sir Walter's ships sailed in the same year; 
others, on board one of which was Thomas Herriot, after- 
wards known as a mathematician, in 1585; the whole, how- 
ever, returned, and probably brought with them the Potatoe, 
on the 27th of July, 1586. 

This Mr. Thomas Herriot, who was probably sent out to 
examine the country, and report to his employers the nature 
and produce of the soil, wrote an account of it, which is 
printed in De Bry's Collection of Voyages, vol. I. In this 
account, under the article of roots, page 17, he describes a 



4 Early History of the Potatoe. 

plant called Openawh : " These roots," says he, " are round, 
some as large as a walnut, others much larger ; they grow in 
damp soil, many hanging together, as if fixed on ropes ; they 
are good food, either boiled or roasted." 

Gerard, in his Herbal, published 1597, gives a figure of 
the potatoe, under the name of Potatoe of Virginia, otherwise 
called Norembaga. 

The manuscript minutes of the Royal Society, December 
13, 1693, tell us, that Sir Eobert Southwell, then President, 
informed the fellows, at a meeting, that his grandfather 
brought potatoes into Ireland, who first had them from Sir 
Walter Rqjeigh. 

This evidence proves, not unsatisfactorily, that the potatoe 
was first brought into England, either in the year 158G, or 
very soon after, and sent from thence to Ireland, without de- 
lay, by Sir Robert Southwell's ancestor, where it was cher- 
ished and cultivated for food before the good people of Eng- 
land knew its value ; for Gerai'd, who had this plant in his 
garden, in 1597, recommends the root to be eaten as a deli- 
cate dish, — not as common food. 

It appears, however, that it first came into Europe at an 
earlier period, and by a different channel ; for Clusius, who 
at that time resided at Vienna, first received the potatoe in 
1598, who had procured it the year before from one of the 
attendants of the Pope's legate, under the name of Taratoufli ; 
and learned from him, that in Italy, where it was then in 
use, no one certainly knew whether it originally came from 
Spain or from America. 

Peter Cieca, in his Chronicle, printed in 1553, tells us, 
chap, xi., p. 49, that the inhabitants of Quito and its vicini- 
ty, have, besides Maize, a tuberous root, which they eat, and 
call papas ; this, Clusius guesses to be the plant he received 
from Flanders, and this conjecture has been confirmed by the 



Early History of the Potatoe. 5 

accounts of travellers, "who have since that period visited the 
country. 

From these details we may fairly infer, that potatoes were 
first brought into Europe from the mountainous parts of 
South America, in the neighborhood of Quito ; and, as the 
Spaniards were the sole possessors of that country, there is 
little doubt of their having been first carried into Spain ; but 
as it would take some time to introduce them into use in that 
country, and afterwards to make the Italians so well ac- 
quainted with them as to give them a name,* there is every 
reason to believe they had been several years in Europe, be- 
fore they wei*e sent to Clusius. 

The name of the root in South America, is Papas, and in 
Virginia, it was Openawh ; the name of potatoe was evident- 
ly applied to it on account of its similarity in appearance to 
the Battata, or Sweet Potatoe ; and our potatoe appears to 
have been distinguished from that root, by the apellative of 
Potatoe of Virginia, till the year 1640, if not longer.f 

Several authors have asserted, that potatoes were first dis* 
covered by Sir Francis Drake, in the South Seas ; and others, 
that they were introduced into England by Sir John Haw- 
kins ; but in both instances the plant alluded to is clearly the 
sweet potatoe, which was used in England as a delicacy, long 
before the introduction of our potatoes ; it was imported in 
considerable quantities from Spain, and the Canaries, and 
was supposed to possess the power of restoring decayed vigor. 
The kissing comfoi'ts of Falstaff,^ and other confections of 
similar imaginary qualities, with which our ancestors were 
duped, were principally made of these eringo roots. 



* Taratoufli signifies also truffles, 
t Gerard's Herbal, by Johnson, p. 729. 

J " Let it rain potatoes, and hail kissing comforts." — Merry Wives of 
Windsor, Act V., Scene V. 

1* 



6 Early History of the Potatoe. 

The potatoes themselves were sold by itinerant dealers, 
chiefly in the neighborhood of the Royal Exchange, and pur- 
chased when scarce, at no inconsiderable cost, by those who 
had faith in their alleged properties. The allusions to this 
opinion are very frequent in the plays of that age. 



CHAPTER II. 

Cultivation of the Potatoe. 

It was not till 1771 and 1772, that the practice of cultivat- 
ing potatoes as a field crop began to acquire supporters ; but 
at that time all the grain crops failed, and the famine which 
ensued led to the discovery that proper and sufficient nour- 
ishment might be derived from those very potatoes which 
had hitherto only been regarded as a luxury, just as well as 
from bread. Still its cultivation did not exceed the wants of 
man himself. It was not till a later period that the practice 
of giving the refuse and surplus to the cattle began to creep 
in. But it was thus gradually discovered that potatoes might 
be advantageously cultivated as food for live stock. Bergen, 
in his " Introduction to the Management of Live Stock," was 
the first to recommend the practice of this cultivation on a 
large scale, and the use of a kind of horn hoe to save manual 
labor. At the present day it appears scarcely credible that 
the extreme utility of this plant should have so long remain- 
ed unknown, and tha,t so much difference of opinion should 
have existed on the propriety of raising it on extensive tracts 
of land. 

"There is no plant," says Thaer, in his "Principles of 
Agriculture," " to which I have paid greater attention than 
to the potatoe. Even before I entered upon the practice of 
agriculture, my attention was excited by the innumerable 
varieties which were produced by raising it from seed. I 



8 Cultivation of the Potatoe. 

treated it in various ways at that time, merely witli a view to 
vegetable physiology, my object being to discover whether 
the distinguishing characters of these varieties were due to 
the nature of the soil, or the mode of fertilizing it. Since 
that time I have, in raising the potatoe, tried all the methods 
proposed by others, as well as those which I have myself 
devised. As far as the quantity of produce is concerned, the 
results of various modes of planting and cultivation have 
shown but little difference, unless, indeed, the cultivation 
were altogether neglected or badly arranged. The quantity 
of produce was found to depend upon the soil, when the spe- 
cies cultivated was the same. But the manual labor, and, 
consequently, the net profit, varied considerably. I have 
done my utmost to reduce this manual labor to the smallest 
possible amount, without sensibly diminishing the produce, 
for, in the raising of potatoes the rent of land is much less 
considerable than the expenses of cultivation. 

"I will venture to say, that I have attained this object more 
nearly than any one else, and that I have found myself near- 
er and nearer to it at the end of almost every successive 
year. I therefore beg those persons who have read my for- 
mer works,* and the observations which I have made on the 
•culture of the potatoe, to consider such observations as the 
result of my apprenticeship, and those which I am now about 
to make, as more complete and matured." 

In order to make some sort of classification of the innumer- 
able varieties of the jDOtatoe, we must confine our attention to 
"the most useful part, — the tuber. It is true that the leaves 
and the flowers appear to bear some relation to the form of 
the tuber, but the particular examination of them belongs 
more properly to the botanical cultivator. 

The skin of the potatoe is, in some varieties, of a dark 
color, approaching almost to blackness ; in others of a red- 

* Thaer's English Agriculture, vols. 1 and 2. 



Cultivation of the Potatoe. 9 

dish violet, which varies to pale, brownish, or yellowish red ; 
in others, again, of a whitish yellow. 

The color of the flesh is sometimes yellow, sometimes 
whitish, or perfectly white, and sometimes slightly tinged 
-with red. 

The several varieties of the potatoe have different times 
of arriving at maturity ; that is to say, at the state in which 
the tubers are detached from the maternal plant, and the lat- 
ter dies. 

But the points of difference we have chiefly to consider, 
relate to the consistence of the potatoe and the quantity of 
starch contained in it. Some varieties are very spongy, their 
interstices are filled with water, their specific gravity is small, 
and they contain but a small quantity of nutriment in a given 
bulk. 

The flavor of some potatoes is very agreeable ; of others, 
very disagreeable. Some improve by keeping, others are 
best when fresh gathered. 

Some cook speedily and burst, others resist the action of 
steam and hot water for a long time. 

Some varieties require a dry soil, becoming quite watery 
and hollow in the middle when grown on land which requires 
much moisture; they also secrete water in their cavities. 
Others, on the contrary, are very small, and are scarcely 
worth the expense of cultivation Avhen grown on a dry soil. 

Some put out long filaments into the soil ; others press 
their tubers so closely together, that they show themselves 
above ground. 

Some varieties thrive particularly well on marshy land, 
others perish on it, and thrive on an argillaceous soil. 

All these particulars must be taken into account, when a 
selection is to be made of varieties for cultivation. The cut 
tare of a new variety should never be undertaken on a large 
scale, till a proper trial has been made of it. 



10 Cultivation of the Potatoe. 

The amount of produce of cacli variety must be taken into 
consideration, but the vakie calculated according to the quan- 
tity of nutritive matter contained in it. This may be judged 
of approximately by the sensation which the fleshy part of 
the tuber produces when applied to the tongue ; or more ac- 
curately by cutting the tubers in pieces, drying them, and com- 
paring their weight in the dry state with what it was before ; 
but an accurate estimate is only to be made by chemical an- 
alysis. Great bulk is by no means, desirable, if it be not 
attended with increase in the quantity of starch : for the pota- 
toes then take up more room, although their inti'insic value 
remains the same, and they are more likely to be spoiled. 
In other respects when potatoes are cultivated for sale, the 
choice must be directed by the taste of purchasers. 

Potatoes will grow on soils of all descriptions, and in favor- 
able weather will yield a good crop, even on moving sand, 
provided that it has been well manured. On a stony soil, 
well prepared, and lightened with dung, containing straw, 
the success of the potatoe is certain ; though a sandy soil is 
best adapted to it. 

On clearings and marsh lands, provided the soil has been 
well drained, and especially if the turf has been burned upon 
it, potatoes thrive particularly well, and sometimes yield a 
very large produce. 

It is generally admitted that potatoes grow larger after 
recent manuring ; they will, however, yield a good crop even 
when raised as a second or third crop ; but the soil will then 
be greatly exhausted. I have never even thought of assert- 
ing that potatoes do not impoverish the soil ; on the contrary 
I have stated that they do so ; they do not, however, exhaust 
the resources, of the establishment in general, but increase 
those resources to a considerable extent, if they arc given as 
food to the cattle. 

On strong land, fresh dung mixed with straw is most ben- 



Cultivation of the Potatoe. 11 

eficial to potatoes, and the more so in proportion to the close- 
ness of its contact with them ; it should, therefore, not be 
carted and put into the ground till just before the seed time 
of ploughing. But for light soils, the dung must either be iii 
a more advanced stage of decomposition, or it must be mixed 
with the earth by several ploughings. 

Very healthy potatoes are also produced by the use of' 
other active manures, such as scrapings of horn spread in the 
furrows at the seed time ploughing, rags of wool, and the 
refuse of the tan yard. Turning sheep on to the field after 
the potatoes have been set, is likewise very efficacious in 
promoting their growth, but it gives the tubers a bad flavor. 
There is also a limit to the degree of cultivation proper for 
potatoes ; if it be surpassed the haulm becomes excessively 
large, and falls upon the ground ; the number of tubers is 
then much diminished. 

In setting potatoes, it is necessary to select the most healthy 
and vigorous tubers ; not such as have already been depriv- 
ed of two or three of their buds, because the most vigorous 
buds are always the first chosen. Especially must those be 
rejected wliich have been much exposed to the cold, even 
though they should not have been much injured by frost. 
Potatoes grown in pits, mounds, or hollows, where frost has 
penetrated and destroyed a portion of tubers, are very uncer- 
tain in plantations ; I am sure of this from my own experi- 
ence. They either do not shoot up at all, or produce but 
feeble plants ; great cai-e should therefore be taken to pre- 
serve those which are intended for setting. 

I am aware that many cultivators have obtained abundant 
crops of large potatoes by planting none but small tubers j 
nevertheless I prefer setting those of large and average size, 
especially for certain varieties. Small tubers have not the 
same power of germination as large ones, and often do not 
germinate at all ; whereas, those of large size may without 
injury be cut in halves. 



JL2 Cultivation of the Potatoe. 

When circumstances are otherwise favorable, very strong 
plants are often obtained by setting mere cuttings of potatoes 
containing a single eye ; or, even the eye by itself. But on 
heavy land, which has not been well pulverized, as well as 
on a sandy soil, there is great danger of failar?, if, after 
setting, or during germination, the weather should be unfa- 
vorable for the formation of the plant. To ensure success, 
this plant must, by means of its feeble roots, immediately 
seek for nourishment in the soil. It must not encounter a 
hard piece of ground : for, as it derives no nourishment from 
the maternal plant, it would then dry up and perish. I 
therefore abandon this method altogether, although I former- 
ly recommended it ; it succeeds very well in gardens, but is 
very uncertain for potatoe crops grown in the open field. 

There will always be a ditference of opinion touching the 
expediency of setting potatoes close together, or far apart ; 
for the decision of this matter depends upon adventitious cir- 
cumstances ; but repeated trials accurately described, seem to 
show that the quantity of produce is, to a considerable ex- 
tent, in proportion to that of the sets. The practical results 
of these trials are as follows : — 

1. The amount of net produce, deduction being made for 
the quantity of potatoes used for setting, bears a tolerably ex- 
act proportion to the latter quantity, — that is to say, that 
one who sets a larger quantity of tubers, will usually obtain a 
more abundant crop than one who sets a smaller quantity. . 

2. Fine large tubers produce not only larger potatoes, but 
also a greater number of them. 

3. The degeneracy often observed in potatoes, apparently 
results from the use of unhealthy plants for setting. 

4. Small tubers, and those which are destitute of buds, 
cannot by any means be recommended for setting. 

5. When potatoes of medium quality are planted, it is bet- 
ter to set them whole ; but when the tubers are very large* 



Cultivation of the Potatoe. 13 

the halves will be found sufficient, provided, however, that 
they are set rather closely in the rows. 

6. It is not advisable to cut a potatoe into more than two 
pieces. 

7. It is better to set the tubers, one by one, and close to- 
gether, than to put a number of them into the ground togeth- 
er, particularly wdien all the labor is performed with the 
plough, and no cultivation is given with the hand-hoe. 

8. It is not advisable to plant mere buds ; they often fail.* 
I give these principles as being in accordance with my 

own experiments made on the large scale, with the exception, 
however, of the first. It does appear, from actual experi- 
ment, that the quantity of produce is in proportion to that of 
the potatoes put into the ground. The author deduces a 
result by dividing his plantation into two parts. In one of 
these he places the trial in which the quantity set amounted 
to more than 1,254 ; and in the other, those in which this 
quantity was less. In the former the net produce of each 
row w^as 16.81 ; in the latter, only 15.41. These two results 
are in the proporticai of 1000 to 917. The loss in the latter 
is, therefore, 8^ per cent., but the diiFerence in the relative 
quantity of the sets is much greater. Then, again, among 
the trials included in the latter division, there are several 
which ought not to be included in the comparison : where, 
for example, the set consisted of mere eyes, or handfuls of 
very small scattered shoots, all of which gave but a very 
insignificant product. If we take into account those trials 
only in which good potatoes, or cuttings of them, w^ere set at 
intervals of 1, 2, 3 and 4 decimetres,! it will be found that 
the diffi^rence is very small, not exceeding two and a half 
per cent. 

* German Agricultural Gazette, 
t A French measure of about three aad a half inches. 
2 



14 Cultivation of the Potatoe. 

I am willing to admit the existence of this diflPerence, and 
even of one of five per cent., if the potatoes are set in one 
part of the rows, at eight inches, and in another at twenty- 
four inches distance ; so that the quantity of sets used for the 
former shall be three times as great as that used for the lat- 
tei\ The quantity obtained from the half in which the pota- 
toes are at the greatest distance apart, will not amount to 
more than ninety-five bushels beyond that of the sets, while 
the produce of the other half will amount to one hundred 
bushels. 

On the other hand the practice of setting at greater distan- 
ces is attended with the following advantages, in field culti- 
vation. 

1. Potatoes, especially those fit for setting, bring a much 
higher price in spring than in autumn, which is the time for 
gathermg ; the keeping of them occasions both trouble and 
risk, and there is always a portion spoiled. 

2. Setting at greater distances occasions saving of manual 
labor. 

3. When the plantations are laid out iii rows in all direc- 
tions, and the distances between the rows are wide enough to 
allow the plough to pass crosswise, almost all the manual 
labor which would otherwise be required to weed the spaces 
will be saved. 

4. These ploughings are much more efficacious in cleans- 
ing, pulverizing and aerating the land, than they would be if 
performed in one direction only, so that the object of follow- 
ing one of the principaf ends of the culture of weeded crops, 
is completely attained. We say nothing about the effect pro- 
duced on the potatoes themselves, by cultivation on all sides, 
since we have admitted, for argument's sake, that those which 
are cultivated on one side only, yield the greatest increase. 

5. The gathering of potatoes is performed with far greater 
facility and despatch when they are grown on separate hil- 



Cultivation of the Potatoe. 15 

locks, than when they are arranged in continuous lines. My 
farmers are more willing to raise potatoes planted singly, for 
the fourteenth part of tlie produce, than for the tenth when 
they are planted in rows, for a man will raise eighteen schef- 
fles of the former in a day, where of the latter he would raise 
only ten, even though they may have been cultivated with 
the same care. This saving of time in taking the crop is of 
great importance. 

Such are the reasons which induce me to prefer the meth- 
od of setting potatoes at moderate distances, and arranging 
them ill lines in all directions. I admit that when this meth- 
od is adopted, a somewhat larger extent of surface is required 
for the production of a given quantity ; but the great saving 
of labor, and tlie excellent jDreparation of the land which it 
affords, are of much greater importance. 

In setting potatoes regard must be had to the state of the 
weather. In this country I never plant them till the soil has 
become heated ; and I have always observed that the pota- 
toes set last were the first to come up. I have planted them 
with success till tire beginning of June ; but I endeavor to 
get the setting finished by the middle of May. If the soil 
contain ever so small a quantity of clay, it is absolutely ne- 
cessary to defer the planting till it is perfectly dry, and no 
longer adheres to the implements. 

As early as possible in autumn I break up the soil to the 
depth of two inches lower than before, and then pass the har- 
row over it. In w^inter the dung is carted and uniformly 
spread. At the beginning of spring, this dung is buried by a 
light ploughing. I like to have a portion of the manure 
brought up to the surface by this operation, because a greater 
quantity is then collected ai'ound the roots of the potatoe. 



CHAPTER III. 

On Planting Potatoes. Harvesting. Preserving the Crop. 

In the preceding chapter I could not resist the temptation 
to copy entire Mr. Thaer's article on potatoes ; it seemed to 
me so characterized by clearness and perspicuity, so emi- 
nently practical, that I could not, with propriety, withhold it 
from a compilation of the kind in hand ; besides the article is 
new to American readers, and cannot be uninteresting. I 
continue in the present chapter, the account of Mr. Thaer, 
embracing some suggestions, the most important to us at the 
present time, on the subject of keeping and preserving pota- 
toes through the winter. The extract commences with Mr. 
Thaer's method of planting, which was alluded to in the 
previous chapter. 

By means of the marldng plough, or furrower, already 
noticed, lines, or small furrows, are traced at right angles, or 
obliquely, to the direction which the plough is to take. Five 
persons are then stationed at equal distances on the line of 
the plough, each having assigned to him the space which he 
is to plant. One plough traces the furrow, which is imme- 
diately set with potatoes ; two other ploughs then follow, and 
the potatoes are set in the furrow traced by the third. It 
will be understood that the persons who set them will have to 
go from one side to the other, each one keeping within his 
allotted space. Each potatoe is set at the point of intersec- 



Cultivation of the Potatoe. 17 

tion of the line traced by the marker, with the furrow formed 
by the plough. It is of importance that the potatoes be set 
as close as possible to the perpendicular side of the furrow, 
and not on that Avhere the slice has been turned over ; for, in 
the former position, the potato is more likely to remain in its 
place, and not to be disturbed by the horse's foot. 

TJie best ploughmen must be employed to trace the fur- 
row in which the potatoes are set ; first, to ensure that the 
furrow may be of a proper and uniform depth, — three inches 
on a heavy, and four or five on a sandy soiL If the laborers 
are well practised three ploughs and five planters will finish 
eight acres per day. 

A week after the setting, the ground is harrowed, an op- 
eration by which a few weeds are destroyed. Great numbers 
of them afterwards spring up. Nothing more, however, i.^ 
done to get rid of them till the potatoes are about to spring up 
and some of them just beginning to show their leaves above 
ground. The extirpator is then passed lightly over the 
whole surface of the field. This may be done without fear 
of hurting the potatoes. The whole of the weeds are thus 
destroyed. The soil is left in this state till all the -potatoes 
have come up, and is then harrowed to level it. After this 
harrowing, the potatoes are as clean as if they had been care- 
fully weeded, so that it only remains to pass the horse-hoe or 
cultivator over them. 

The first cultivation is performed with the small hoe, and 
should be given in the direction followed by the marking 
plough or furrower ; the second must be performed by the 
horn-hoe and in the direction of the plough. This will be 
sufficient in the greater number of cases. If a few weeds 
should have escaped here and there, by growing close to the 
potatoes, it will cost but little labor to pull them up while yet 
in flower. 

By these operations the cultivation is completely finished 
2* 



18 Cultivation of the Potatoe. 

before harvest time ; and nothing remains to be done for them 
till they are ready for taking up. 

When the soil is tenacious and exposed to humidity, I 
prefer the following method of cultivation : 

The soil having been well prepared, lines crossing trans- 
•versely are traced with the marking plough, and a potatoe 
set at each intersection. The j3lanting goes on much more 
•quickly in this way ; one man can easily plant three acres 
per day. The small horse-hoe is then passed close to each 
row, and covers it with earth. When weeds spring up, they 
are destroyed by passing the large horse-hoe in the same 
direction, an operation which is performed whether the pota- 
toes have come up or not. When the potatoes have grown 
up to a certain height, the banks or edges formed by the 
hoe in the last cultivation are cut transversely with the large 
hoe ; another and final cultivation is perhaps given in the 
direction of the first. 

The advantages presented by this method when applied to 
an argillaceous soil are very striking. The potatoe is sur- 
rounded on all sides by light earth, and dung heaped around 
it. It is preserved from- any excess of moisture that might 
injure the crop, because it is placed above the bottom of the 
furrow by which the water drains off. The soil in which it 
rests is also thoroughly warmed by the sun. But this meth- 
od is recommended for those soils only in which potatoes 
might suffer from excess of moisture, as a sharpish frost 
attacking the potatoes before they were gathered might pen- 
etrate too deeply into the ridges. 

When the earth has been laid up for the last time, and the 
potatoes begin to blossom, they must be left quiet ; for it is 
then that the young tubers are formed. 

Some persons have recommended that the flowers be cut 
ofi", in order to increase the growth of the tubers ; but the 
recommendation is absurd. CuUen, of Edinburgh, observed 



Cultivation of the Potatoe. 19 

some time ago, that the developement of the tubers keeps 
pace with that of the flowers ; and experiments especially- 
directed to this jjoint have uniformly shown that the crop is 
much injured by the removed of the flowers. 

Cullen also tried the effect of cutting ofl' the leaves as fast 
as they grew ; the consequence was that the potatoes pro- 
duced no tubers, but merely filamentous roots. The experi- 
ments of Anderson, showing the injury occasioned to potatoes 
by the hasty removal of their leaves, are conclusive against 
this practice. 

The digging the crop has always been looked upon by 
great cultivators as the most difficult part of this bi-anch of 
husbandry, and has been the main cause of their unwilling- 
ness to undertake it on a large scale. This fear, has, how- 
ever, greatly diminished ; it has, indeed, been found, that the 
getting in may be performed with greater expedition and fa- 
cility than was formerly thought possible. They are taken 
up by means of a mattock, or potatoe hoe. When they are 
planted according to my method, one man can with such an 
instrument easily prepare work for twelve pickex's. In this 
manner potatoes can be taken up with less work than with 
the plough. 

In gathering potatoes, I make use of boxes, which hold 
about thirty l)ushels, and are placed on waggons. In one 
side of these boxes is an opening, which shuts by means of a 
sliding door. When the boxes arrive at the bai'n the door is 
opened and a kind of gutter adapted to the opening, and 
along this gutter the potatoes descend to the place intended 
for them. 

Potatoes dug in dry weather may with safety be placed 
immediately in a cellar, or store-house, protected from frost ; 
but the place in which they are kept must be left open, to 
aflfbrd a free circulation of aiv, till cold weather comes on. 



20 Oultivation of the Potatoe. 

But if the potatoes are raised in damp weather, it is better to 
spread them out on a floor, and let them dry there. 

A point of great importance is to cover lieaps over with a 
layer of straw, at least six inches thick. Thts layer of straw 
should be thickest near the ground ; it should there extend 
beyond the heap of potatoes, "so as completely to prevent the 
access of frost. The straw should be well filled at the sum- 
mit and angles, and the whole covered up with earth. It is 
not, indeed, the earth which protects the potatoes from frost ; 
this effect is produced by the straw, which prevents the radia- 
tion of heat from them ; but the eai-th should be closely pressed 
to prevent the air getting through the straw. Earth which 
has no consistence and easily crumbles is, therefore, unfit for 
the purpose ; if no other can be obtamed, some kind of cov- 
ering must be placed over it. 

A precaution very necessary to be observed, is not to close 
the heaps completely in autumn so long as the weather con- 
tinues warm. A small quantity of air must be allowed access 
through the top till the . frost comes on ; a vent will thus be 
afforded for vapors which rise from the heap. Covering 
the heaps with dung is always useless and often mischievous. 

"When a thaw comes on it is prudent to open the heaps a 
little at the top, to permit the escape of vapor. 



CHAPTER IV. 

An Account of Diseases lohicli have 'previously affected the 
Potatoe, and the Remedies that have been found efficacious. 

In finding materials for this cliapter I must necessarily 
confine my attention principally to English publications, as 
English writers on agriculture have noted and marked the 
nature, effects, and cure of the various diseases which have 
affected this root, with more exactness and precision than 
have characterized American writers on this subject. 

The potatoe is subject to disease at a very early period of 
its existence, not merely after it has developed its leaves and 
stems, but before the germ has risen from the sets. The 
disease which affects the plant is called the curl, from the 
curled or crumpled appearance which the leaves assume 
when under the influence of the disease. What the imme- 
diate cause of the disease is, it is very diflicult to say ; but 
the puny stems and stinted leaves indicate weakness in the 
constitution of the plant, and, like weak animals affected with 
constitutional disease, the small tubers produced by curled 
potatoes, when planted, propagate the disease in the future 
crop. The curl is so well known by its appearance, and the 
curled plant so generally shunned, as seed, that the disease is 
never willingly propagated by the cultivator ; still there are 
circumstances in the management of the tubers which induced 
the disease therein. The experiments of Mr. T. Dickson 



22 Diseases of the Potatoe. 

show, that the disease arises from the vegetable power of the 
sets planted, having been exhausted by over-ripening, so that 
sets from the waxy end of the potatoe produced healthy plants, 
Avhereas those from the best ripened end did not vegetate at 
all, or produced curled plants. It is the opinion of Mr. 
Crichton, that the curl in the potatoe, may often be occa- 
sioned by the way the potatoes are treated that are intended 
for seed. " I have observed," he says, "wherever the seed 
stock is carefully pitted, and not exposed to the air in the 
spring, the crop has seldom any curl ; but where the seed 
stock is put into barns and not houses, for months together, 
such crop seldom escapes turning out in a great measure 
curled ; and if but few curl the first year, if they are planted 
again, it is more than probable the half of them wall curl 
again next year." 

Mr. Knight, on the subject of this disease, in an article 
written in 1810, says : " A few years ago the curl destroyed 
many of our best varieties of the potatoe, to the attacks of 
which every good variety will probably be subject. 

I observed that the leaves of several kinds of potatoes, 
which were dry and farinaceous, that I cultivated, produced 
curled leaves, while those other kinds, which were soft and 
aqueou"S, were perfectly well formed, whence I was led to 
suspect that the disease originated in the preternaturally 
insi)issated state of the sap in the dry and farinaceous varieties. 
I conceived that the sap, if not sufficiently fluid, might stag- 
nate in, and close, the fine vessels of the leaf during its 
growth and extension, and thus occasion the irregular con- 
tractions which constitute this disease ; and this conclusion, 
which I drew many years ago, is perfectly consistent with the 
opinions I have subsequently entertained, respecting the for- 
mation of leaves. I therefore suffered a quantity of potatoes, 
the produce almost wholly of diseased plants, to remain in 
the heap, where they had been preserved during winter, till 



Diseases of the' Potatoe. 23 

eacli tuber had emitted shoots of tliree or four inches long. 
Thej were then carefully detached with their fibrous roots, 
from the tubei's, and were committed to the soil ; where 
having little to subsist upon except water, I concluded the 
cause of the disease, if it were the too great thickness of the 
sap, would be effectually removed, and I had the satisfaction 
to observe, that not a single curled leaf was produced ; though 
more than nine-tenths of the plants, which the same identical 
tubers subsequently produced, were much diseased. 

In the spring of 1808, Sir John Sinclair informed me that 
a gardener in Scotland, INIr. Crozer, had discovered a method 
of preventing the curl, by taking up the tubers before they 
are nearly full grown and consequently before they became 
farinaceous. Mr. Crozer, therefore, and myself, appear to 
have arrived at the same point by very different routes ; for 
by taking his potatoes, whilst immature, from the parent stem, 
he probably I'etained the sap nearly in the state to which my 
mode of culture reduced it. I therefore conclude that the 
opinions I first formed, are ^vell founded, and that the disease 
may be always removed by the means I employed, and its 
return prevented by those adopted by Mr. Crozer. 

Another disease affects the seed, and is called the failure, 
or taint, which consists of the destruction of their A'ital pow- 
ers. Many conjectures have been hazarded as to the cause 
of the failure, and most of them have ascribed it to the fer- 
mented state of the dung, to the drought of the season, to the 
heating of the sets, to the tuber being cut into sets, and other 
secondary causes ; but all these conjectures leave untouched 
the principal consideration in the question, how these cir- 
cumstances should induce failure now, and not in by-gone 
years. Cut sets have been used for many years without 
causing failure. Farm-yard dung in various states of de- 
composition, has been used as long for raising potatoes. The 
extraordinary drought of 1826 caused no failure, while in 
comparative cool seasons the disease has made great havoc. 



24 Diseases of the Potatoe. 

Mr. John Sliirreff takes a general and philosophical view 
of the cause of disease in the potatoe crop, and though, no 
doubt, his observations are particularly applicable to the curl, 
still they will apply equally well to the taint ; for the con- 
nection between the two diseases is so intimate, that you have 
seen Mr. Dickson's observation is, that some "sets " did not 
vegetate at all," that is, failed, " or produced curled plants." 
Mr. ShirrefF adojjts the general doctrine broached by Mr. 
Knight. " The maximum of the duration of the life of any 
individual vegetable or animal," he says, " is predetermined 
by nature, under whatever circumstances the individual may 
be placed ; the minimum, on the other hand, is determined 
by these very circumstances. Admitting, then, that a pota- 
toe might reproduce itself from tubers for a great number of 
years in the shady woods of Peru, it seems destined to be- 
come abortive in the cultivated champaign of Britain,, inso- 
much that not a single healthy plant of any sort of potatoe 
that yields berries, and which was in culture twenty years 
ago, can now be produced." Mr. ShirreiF concludes, there- 
fore, that the potatoe is to be considered a short-lived plant, 
and that though its health and vigor may be i:)rolonged by 
rearing it in elevated or in shady situations, or by cropping 
the flowers, and thus preventing the plants from exhausting 
themselves, the only sure way to obtain vigorous plants, and 
to ensure productive crops, is to have frequent recourse to 
new varieties from seed. The same view had occurred to Dr. 
Hunter, who, in his Georgical essays, has limited the duration 
of a variety in a state of perfection to fourteen years. 

The fact ascertained by Mr. Knight deserves to be noticed. 
That by planting late in the season, an exhausted good 
variety, may, in a great measure be restored ; that is, the 
tuber resulting from the late planting, when again i^lanted at 
the ordinary season, produces the kind in its pristine vigor 
and of its former size. It is obvious that all these opinions 



Diseases of the Potatoe. 25 

refer to the possibility of plants indicating constitutional 
weakness, and why may not the potatoe ? I have all along 
been of the opinion that the failure has arisen from this cause, 
nor does it seem to me to be refuted by the fact, that certaia 
varieties of potatoe have been cultivated for many years in- 
the same locality without fail ; because it is well understood 
that every variety of potatoe has not indicated failure, and 
one locality may be more favorable to retention of vigor of 
constitution than another; at least, we may easily believe 
this. I have no doubt in my own mind that were seed pota- 
toes securely pitted, until they were aBout to be planted, — 
not over-ripened before they were taken out of the ground, — 
the sets cut from the crispest tuber and from the waxy end ; 
the dung fermented by a turning of the dung-hill in jiroper 
time ; led out to the field, quickly spread, the sets as quickly 
dropped in it, and the drills quickly split, there would be little' 
heard of the failure even in the dryest season. I own it is 
ditficult to prove the existence of constitutional weakness in 
any given tuber, as its existence is only im^ilied by the fact 
of the failure ; but the hypothesis explains many more facts 
than any other, than atmospheric influence, for example^ 
producing the failure like epidemic diseases in animals, for 
such influences existed many years ago, as well as now. The 
longer the cultivation of the tuher of the potatoe, wliich is not 
its seed, is persevered in, the more certainly may Ave expect 
to see its constitutional vigor weakened, in strict analogy to 
other plants propagated by similar means ; such as the failure 
of many varieties of the apple and pear, and of the cider- 
fruits of the seventeenth century. This very season (1843,) 
contradicts the hypothesis of drought and heat as the primary^ 
cause of failure, for it has hitherto (to June) been neither hot 
nor dry, while it strikingly exemplifies the theory of consti- 
tutional weakness, inasmuch as the fine season of 1842 had 
so much over-ripened the potatoe, — farmers still unaware of 
3 



26 Diseases of the Potatoe. 

the cause of the faihire, permitting the potatoes they have 
used for seed to become over-ripened, — that the sets this 
spring, to repeat again the words of IMr. Dickson, " did not 
vegetate at all," even ui the absence of heat and drought, and 
in the presence of moist weather. Had the potatoes been a 
little less over-ripened in 1842, the sets from them might 
have produced only curl this season, though it is not improb- 
able that the same degree of over-ripening may cause entire 
failure now, that would only have caused curl years ago ; and 
as over-ripening" was excessive last year, owing to the very 
fine weather, so the failure is extensive in a corresponding 
degree in this, even in circumstances considered by most 
people preventive of its recurrence, namely, in cold and moist 
weather. And observe the results of both 1842 and 1843 as 
confirinatory of the same principle, illustrated by diametrically 
ojjposite circumstances. The ?mc?er-ripened seed of the bad 
season of 1841 produced the good crop of potatoes in 1842, 
in spite of the great heat and drought existing at the time of 
its planting in 1842 ; while the orer-ripened seed of the good 
season of 1842 has produced extensive failure, in spite of the 
coolness and moisture existing at the time of planting in 1843. 
How can heat, drouglit, or fermentinfj dung, account for these 
things ? 

As fact, may be mentioned the effects of comparatively 
dry and moist soil, on cut sets and whole potatoes, which 
were brought to light by an experiment of Mr. Howden, and 
which obtained results no one would have anticipated. Says 
IMr. Howden: 

" On the 28th of June I selected from a stock of potatoes 
which had been repeatedly turned and kept for flimily use, 
seventy tubers of the old rough black variety. I divided this 
number into five lots, sizing them so that each lot of fourteen 
potatoes weighed exactly four pounds. I made on that day one 
lot of fourteen pounds into starch, and obtained nine ounces. 



jyiseases of the Potatoe. 27 

On the same clay I put fourteen potatoes whole, and fourteen 
cut into fiftj'^-six sets, into a deep Lox, filled with dry mould. 
The remaining fourteen whole and fourteen cut, I put into 
another box filled with moist earth, and which was watered 
from time to time. At the end of three weeks, all the plants* 
with the exception of five sets, made their appearance. All 
this time the dry box had been kept from moisture. On the 
21st of July, however, I allowed it to be moistened with 
heavy rain, and on the 28th of July, I took up and extracted 
starch from the whole, pefore doing so, however, I weighed 
the several lots, and what seemed to me curious was, that 
each lot of the whole potatoes had gained eight ounces ; while 
each lot of the cut ones had lost six ounces of its weight, and 
of their number ten did not vegetate. The sprouts from 
the whole potatoes weighed four ounces, and those from 
the cut only two ounces. Yet the starch from the twenty- 
eight cut potatoes weighed but two ounces, and that from the 
twenty-eight whole potatoes nine ounces, being exactly the 
produce in starch of half that number, which was made into 
starch at the commencement of the experiment." 

Loudon, in his Encyclopsedia of Agriculture, says : " The 
diseases of the potatoe. are chiefly the scab, the worm, and 
the curl. The scab or ulcerated surface of the tubers, has 
never been satisfactorily accounted for ; some attributing it 
to the ammonia of horse dung ; others to alkali ; and some 
to the use of coal ashes. Change of seed and of ground are 
the only resources known at present for tliis malady. The 
worm and grub both attack the tuber, and the same preven- 
tive is recommended. 

The same causes which have been assigned to a total or 
partial failure of the potatoe in numberless instances, and to 
a most distressing extent in Ireland, have existed since the 
cultivation of the potatoe commenced, but without the efiects 
deplored, which have only prevailed within a very recent 



28 Diseases of the Potatoe. 

space of time. But from tlie frequent and searching investi- 
gation of the subject by the most competent and practical 
men, a preventive against tlie failure has been ascertained, 
namely, the planting of entire tubers. When the cut sets 
have failed, the entire tubers have resisted premature decay ; 
whether it arises from atmospheric influence or debility of 
constitution, or from any of the conjectured causes, the entire 
tubers exert their noxious influences, and germinate healthily 
and freely. All reports agree on this point; there is no 
risk in this case, if the tubers be sound when planted ; and 
it may be added that in all stages of their growth, the uncut 
tubers maintain a decided superiority and yield a correspond- 
ing produce.* 

In this country, the most prevailing disease that has been 
noticed is the rust, which, by some, is regarded as an entirely 
new disease, while others speak of it as having prevailed 
years ago. As a general rule with us, the potatoes have 
been more exempted from disease than any other cultivated 
crop, the least liable to injury from insects, and, of conse- 
quence the most certain crop which our farmers could culti- 
vate. The scab and curl have been the only known diseases 
in Europe, and probably not one in a hundred of American 
cultivators ever saw an instance of the latter disease. 

In 1839, the potatoe in New England found a formidable 
enemy in the black rust, which has caused great loss wherever 
it has shown itself. It has been most destructive on low 
lands, sluggish streams, near ponds, or on low meadows or 
plains ; the more elevated, airy, and dry situations, have 
generally escaped. The following, respecting this new dis- 
ease, is from the Farmer's Monthly Visitor, and I invite 
particular attention to this account, and the observations 
which follow, as I believe it will be found closely allied to 

* Dictionary of the Farm, p. 413. 



Diseases of the Potatoe. 29 

the Potatoe Plague, which will be fully described in Part 
H, of this treatise : 

"The cause of the rust this season, (1839) we believe to 
be the extraordinary humidity, combined with a peculiar 
state of the atmosphere, at some period in the high heat of 
summer. It was remarked that the rust struck universally 
on the 27th of August. Early planted potatoes were not so 
much uijured by it as the later crop. Last year, it will be 
remembered, the , severe drought in that part of the country 
south of a line drawn east and west, at the distance of fifty 
to seventy miles north of Boston, generally lessened the crop 
of potatoes, affecting those early and late planted in a similar 
manner that the rust has this year injured tbem. It Avas too 
dry last summer, and the uncommon wetness of the present 
summer has been ahke injurious. More than half the days 
in June, and two-thirds the days hi July, and one third in 
August were rainy days. In a season so uncommonly wet 
we could not but anticipate quite as much injury to some 
crops as we have suffered. The benefits to the grass crop 
and small grains, have amply compensated for every thing." 

In 1841, a correspondent of the Maine Farmer wrote as 
follows : 

" Almost all persons with whom I have conversed on the 
subject ascribe the failure of the potatoe crop to rust ; and I 
know very well the tops have a rusty appearance, while some 
few have mentioned other causes. I have had ample time 
and opportunity to examine numerous fields under all the 
different circumstances of soil and culture, and time of plant- 
ing, which could be found, and the result in my mind was 
satisfactory that no single cause assigned could alone pro- 
duce it. In one field, planted partly with the pink-eyed 
variety, and partly with the long reds, the pink-eyes were so 
dead, the tops, on pulling, broke off, without puUing up the 
potatoes, and the owner had commenced digging. The long 
3* 



30 Diseases of the Potatoe 

Teds growing side by side appeared as fresh and fair as evef, 
to a casual inspection. But on closer examination the 
leaves at the bottom were dying, and the same process of 
tdecay appeared to have commenced, by which the pink-eyes 
«died. It is said the sap which forms the potatoe is elaborated 
in the leaves, and I believe this is not doubted by any physi- 
'ologists ; but how can this fact be reconciled with the fact 
"that some varieties are quite as large as usual, and the 
•assigned cause of rust we have mentioned. 

" From all the observations I could make there seems to 
■have been some general cause operating, from the time of 
the blossoming of the earliest variety, and the earliest planted 
to the latest, by which the formation of the bulbs was restricted 
to few in number. This cause, I am constrained to believe, 
is atmospheric." 

A work has lately been published by Dr. Van Martius, on 
the epidemic diseases of potatoes. He enumerates all the 
-diseases that have been observed from time to time, and 
describes more particularly two forms which did extensive 
damage to the potatoe crops of Germany, in 1841. These 
he calls, in literal English, stem rot, scab. It is to the first of 
these diseases that we wish to call attention, as resembling, in 
many of its symptoms, moist gangrene. There is, however, 
this difference between that disease, and the one we are 
about to mention, that the- former attacked only leaves and 
fruits, and was accompanied by the presence of a large quan- 
tity of moisture, whilst this attacks the tuber, an underground 
stem, and is characterized by a diminution of water in the 
tissue of the plant. It is, in fact, a dry gangrene, and Mar- 
tins calls it Gangrena tifherum Solani. 

When potatoes are attacked with this disease, the first 
thing that is observed is, a drying up or shrivelling of the 
tuber. The skin loses its ordinary lustre, becomes wrinkled, 
and shows at last little irregular spots, of a dark brown color, 



Diseases of the Potatoe. 31 

which, as the disease progresses, run together mto Larger 
spots. In these phaces the skin seems thicker, and has the 
appearance of having been rubbed against something. Sub- 
sequently, the tissue of which the skin is composed becomes 
loosened and torn ; and by the breaking up of its continuity, 
it assumes the appearance of the back of an old tree. Some- 
times the skin is split up into distinct patches, like scales ; at 
the commencement of the disease the interior of the tuber 
does not suffer; but, at last, a change of color takes place in 
the tissues under the spots of the skin. Patches of a yellow, 
or brown color, are observed, which are at first isolated, but 
at last run into one another. These patches are drier than 
the surrounding tissue ; but up to this period in the appear- 
ance of the disease, no changes have taken place that render 
the tuber unfit to eat. 

As the disease advances, little warts, or excrescences, form 
on the skin, which are of a dark color inside ; they are at 
first small, but keep on extending, and at last run one into 
the other. From the surface of these warts, a fungus, be- 
longing to the mould of the potatoe tribe, is observed to pro- 
ject. The potatoe now begins to emit a disagreeable odor> 
and its physical character is greatly changed. Its specific 
gi'avity, which, in a state of health, is 1.1 Go, becomes succes- 
sively reduced, as the disease proceeds, and at last is about 
0.9. If potatoes are planted with this disease, in no case do 
they put forth healthy shoots. In the commencing stages, 
the eyes put forth shoots which rise above the ground, but 
soon perish. In the latter stages the whole tissue of the 
potatoe is involved in disease, and on cutting into it, it pre- 
sents a dark colored, disorganized mass, very dry, and not 
unlike the appeai'ance of a trufile. 

On examining the tissues under a microscope, it will be 
found that the cellular tissue of the skin has lost its trans- 
parency, and become of a brown color, and that of the in- 



3S Diseases of the Potatoe. 

terior has lost its briglitness as well as its moisture and 
whiteness. The starch grains gradually disappear, and cells 
filled with air, and a yellow fluid, occupy their place. Many 
cells are torn, and the passages are filled with a brown fluid. 

Scattered between the cells in all directions will be found 
dark colored, opaque gi'ains of various forms and sizes. These 
gi-aius do not develope any further, but at last burst, and in 
their appearance and history resemble the Protomyces, or 
primitive fungus germs of unger. On cutting into the little 
knobs, masses of the fibres of a fungus are observed, which at 
last make their way to the surface, and there either fructify 
or become shi'iveUed into a whitish layer. Sometimes the 
fibres of this fungus, which are very delicate and trans- 
parent, are found throughout the whole mass of the diseased 
tuber. On examining these fibres, they present two distinct 
forms, the one being probably a variety of the other. 

I am not aware that this form of disease has prevailed very 
extensively in this country. With regard to the cause of the 
disease nothing certain is known. In Germany it has oc- 
curred in all soils and in all weathers. It has occurred to 
almost all sorts of potatoes, and after all modes of planting 
and gathering ; so that many have been inclined to attribute 
it to the influence of contagion ; whilst those who are advo- 
cates of the doctrine that all diseases arise from the sporules 
of fungi, will at once conclude that the influence of the fungus 
in this disease is a proof that it originated in their presence. 
For the prevention of this rot every precaution should be 
taken m planting them to secure their healthful growth. The 
conclusions of Von Martins are as follows : The newer the 
variety is, the better. The potatoes intended for seed should 
be grown separate from the rest. The seed potatoes should 
not be kept heaped up in damp cellars, and allowed to shoot 
before they are planted, and they should never be cut for 
sowing before they are bi'ought into the field. 



Diseases of the Potatoe. • 33 

. I conclude this part of my subject, by extracting the fol- 
lowing article by IMorrill Allen, an intelligent, practical far- 
mer, of Massachusetts. The elxtract properly belongs, per- 
haps, to Part II, of this work, but it is also connected with 
the present chapter. He says : " There have been sufficient 
indications of the existence of disease, and advances, to justify- 
some general attention to the subject, and the employment of 
such preventive, or remedial means, as may seem to cultiva- 
tors the most likely to prove efficacious. Until the causes of 
the malady shall be more satisfactorily investigated, no rules 
can, with implicit confidence, be given for the treatment. 
The farmers must do as physicians are sometimes obliged to 
do in cases of undefined bodily disease, — prescribe to the 
symptoms. Tliis practice is attended tvith great uncertainty, 
yet the results of it in experience sometimes prove highly 
valuable. The different causes to which the disease in pota- 
tges has been ascribed, lead writers to suggest a great variety 
of remedies in accordance with their views of th§ probably 
origin. Let farmers select and apply such as their reason 
and judgment best approve, and it may be that merely prac- 
tical men will, in the course of their experience, clearly 
prove what theoi'y has hitherto failed of doing, the moving 
cause of the difficulty. If, as supposed by some, it be of 
insect origin, then salt and lime would seem proper applica- 
tions, and these are also strongly recommended by persons 
who think that fungus is the producing cause of the disease. 
Those who suppose it arises from atmospheric influence 
may properly apj)ly the same means which would be recom- 
mended by those who believe it the result of excessive 
growth. Preparation of the soil, and a course in the culti- 
vation likely to produce an even growth is unquestionably 
important in this and other crops. Some persons seem con- 
fident that the rot in potatoes results wholly from deteriora- 
tion m the seed. If this be true we may not expect to avoid 



34 Diseases of the Potatoe. 

the evil merely by sending to anotlier place for seed potatoes ; 
we sliould renew them from the balls. This is a process 
requiring some patience, but we know of no easier method of 
entire renovation. "We suppose renewal can be approached 
in successive j^lantings of unmatured potatoes. These have 
often been strongly recommended for seed, not only for the 
purpose of avoiding disease, but as a means of increasing the 
crop. It is manifestly contrary to what we regard as a gen- 
eral law in vegetation, that the most perfect seed produces 
the healthiest and most fruitful plants. There are, however, 
several reasons for believing that the potatoe may be an ex- 
ception to the general law. The vegetative principle is not 
so concentrated in the potatoe as in most other articles. It 
can be produced from the balls, the bulbs, or from sprouts 
which have grown in the cellar, or the earthy The vegeta- 
tive prmciple being so widely diffused, it may be reasonable 
to suppose, that the perfect ripening of the potatoe to some 
extent weakens its power of reproduction. That power after 
the complete maturity of the bulbs may be more perfectly 
conceiitrated in the balls. The experiment is easily made, 
and it is hoped that many farmers will this year plant pota- 
toes for the next year's seeding as late as the 25 th of June," 



CHAPTER V. 

Various Uses to tvhich Potatoes are applied. 

The most important application of potatoes is as human 
food ; on tliis it is unnecessary to enlarge. 

EinhofF found mealy potatoes to contain twenty-four per 
cent, of their weight of nutritive matter, and rye seventy 
parts ; consequently sixty-four and a half measures of pota- 
toes aiford the same nourishment as twenty-four measures of 
rye. A thousand parts of potatoes yielded to Sir Humphrey 
Davy two hundred to three hundred parts of nutritive matter, 
of which one hundred and fifty-five to tv/o hundred were 
mucilage or starch, fifteen to twenty sugar, and thirty to forty 
gluten. Now, supposing an acre of potatoes to weigh nine 
tons, and an acre of wheat to weigh one ton, which is about 
the usual proportion, then, as one thousand parts of wheat 
afford nine hundred and fifty nutritive parts, and one thou- 
sand of potatoes say two hundred and thirty, the quantity of 
nutritive matter afforded by an acre of wheat and potatoes 
will be nearly as nine to four ; so that an acre of potatoes 
will supply more than double the quantity of human food 
afforded by an acre of wheat. The potatoe is, perhaps, the 
only root grown, which may be eaten every day in the year 
without satiating the palate. They are therefore the only 
substitute that can be used for bread, with any degree of suc- 
cess. In the answer by Dr. Tissot to M. Linquet, the for- 



36- Uses of the Potatoe. 

mer objects to the constant use of potatoes for food, not 
because they are pernicious to the body, but because they 
hurt the faculties of the mind. He owns that those who eat 
maize, potatoes, or even millet, may grow tall and acquire a 
large size. It does not, however, by any means appear, that 
the general use of potatoes has impaired either the health of 
body or vigor of mind of its inhabitants. 

The manufacture of potatoe flour is carried on, to a consid- 
erable extent, in the neighborhood of Paris, and the flour is 
sold at a price considerably higher than that of wheat, for the 
use of confectioners, and of bakers who supply the finer kinds 
of bread. The potatoes are washed and grated, and the 
starch separated from the pulp so attained by filtration ; it is 
dried on shelves, in a room heated by a flue, and afterwards 
broken on a floor, by passing a cast iron roller over it. It is 
then passed into a bolting machine and put into sacks for 
sale. It is reported by Count de Chatrol, in his statistical 
account of Paris, that forty thousand tons of potatoes are an- 
nually manufactured into flour within a circle of eight leagues 
around the city. 

The quantity of farina which potatoes produce varies not 
only according to the species, but according to the period 
when the extraction takes place. The variations produced 
by this last cause are nearly as follows : — 

Two hundred and forty pounds of potatoes, produced of 
farina, or potatoe flour, in 

August, from 23 to 25 pounds. 



Sept., 


a 


32 « 38 


October, 


a 


32 « 40 


Nov., 


a 


38 « 45 


March, 


u 


45 " 38 


April, 


a 


38 " 28 


May, 


a 


. 28 " 20 



The extraction of the farina should be discontinued at the 



Uses of the Potatoe. 3Z 

period when the potatoes begin to grow, the farina being de- 
stroyed by germination. lied potatoes produce a smaller 
quantity of farina. Those which arc blue on the outside give 
little, but it is of good quality ; the white, wliich is often ting- 
ed with red ill the interior, is the least proper for this extrac- 
tion. The best of all are those which have a yellow tint, as 
the farina is of very good quality and abundant. 

The meal of potatoes may be preserved for years, closely 
packed in barrels, or unground in the form of slices, these 
slices having been previously dried by steam. Some German 
philosophers have proposed to freeze the potatoes, by which the 
feculent matter is separated from the starch, and the latter 
being then dried and compressed, may be preserved for any 
length of time, or exported with safety any distance. 

The manufacture of tapioca from potatoes is thus given in the 
Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. The potatoes selected are 
thoroughly washed, afterwards they are grated in a machine 
constructed for the purpose. The parts thus reduced or grat- 
ed fall into a vessel placed underneath. From this vessel 
they are removed, and strained into a tub. On the juice 
being well expressed for the first time, the fibrous matter is 
set apart, and cold clean water is thrown over them. The 
fibres are again put through the same strainer, till the whole 
of the substance is collected, when they are finally cast aside. 
On this being done, the contents of the tub, now in a state of 
mucilage or starch, are allowed to settle. A reasonable in- 
terval being suffered to elapse, the old water is poured gently 
off, and fresh water supphed. After this process of washing 
the bleached matter is passed through a smaller strainer. 

The offals are separated ; the starch now becomes much 
whiter ; but still fresh water is abundantly dashed over it. 
When by frequent ablution the surface of this mass is ren- 
dered quite smooth and clear, it is filtrated a third and last 
time. 

4 



S§ Uses of the Potatoe. 

The strainer now used is of very fine texture, so that no 
improper or accidental admixture may interfere. As soon as 
the starch thus purified, has firmly subsided, it is spread on a 
board, and exposed to the open air. The damp speedily 
evaporates, on which it is, as a security for cleanliness, put 
through a sieve. 

A large circular pan is now procured, and set upon the fire. 
The farina is gradually put into the -pan, till what is conceiv- 
ed to be sufficient for one cooking has been supplied. As 
the natural tendency of the farina, in a warm state, is to ad- 
here to the pan, great care is requisite in constantly turning 
and stirring it. This is effisctuall^ done with a broad flat 
piece of wood, having a long handle to prevent inconvenience 
from the heat. A temperature of one hundred and fifty de- 
grees, Fahrenheit, suits best for perfecting the tapioca. When 
the farina becomes quite hard, dry and gritty, it is then ready, 
and may be taken off the fire. — Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
culture, Vol. II., p. G8. 

Potash may be extracted from potatoe leaves and stalks, 
by the following process : — Cut off the stalks when the 
flowers begin to fall, as that is the period of their greatest 
vigor ; leave them on the ground eight or ten days to dry ; 
cart them to a hole dug in the earth, about five feet square by 
two feet deep, and then burn them, keeping the ashes red-hot 
as long as possible. Afterwards take out the ashes, pour 
boiling water on them, and then evaporate the water. There 
remains, after the evaporation, a diy saline reddish substance, 
known in commerce under the name of salin ; the more the 
ashes are boiled, the greyer and more valuable the salin be- 
comes. The salin must be calcined in a very hot oven, until 
the whole mass presents a uniform reddish brown. In cool- 
ing it remains dry, and in fragments bluish within, and white 
on the surface, in which state it takes the name of potash. — 
Smith's Mechanic, Vol. II., p. 381. 



Uses of the Potatoe. 39 

Among extraordinary applications of the potatoe, may be 
mentioned cleaning woollens, and making wine and ardent 
spirits. 

Cleaning Woollens. — The refuse of the potatoes used in 
making starch, when taken from the sieve, possesses the prop- 
erty of cleansing woollen cloths, without injuring their color ; 
and the water decanted from the starch powder is excellent 
for cleansing silks, without the slightest injury to the color. 

Wine and ardent spirits of a good quality are made from 
potatoes. Under the influence of certain chemical agents, 
which it is not my province here to speak of particularly, 
stai'ch is converted into sugai*, and this sugar, by fermenta- 
tion, yields spirits. On the European continent potatoe 
spirit is almost universally used ; and in flavor it so resem- 
bles brandy that it is well known that a large quantity of the 
French brandy brought into London, is potatoe spirit from 
Hamburg, colored with burned sugar. 

On converting potatoes into flour, Mr. Abiel Abbott, of 
Sidney, Me., thus writes to the Kennebec Journal : — 

" After much study and many experiments, I have made a 
discovery which I think will, with that encouragement it 
merits, be of great importance to the people of this state and 
all others similarly situated. 

" In 1832 I was strongly impressed that flour might be ob- 
tained from the potatoe ; accordingly I ventured an experi- 
ment, the result of which was, eight pounds of flour from the 
busheh I then suspended my experiments until the winter 
of 1844, when I resumed them, and found the result to be the 
same as 1832, that is, eight pounds of fine flour from the 
bushel. Owing to a deficiency of gluten good bread cannot 
be made from it alone, but when mixed with equal parts of 
wheaten flour, the bread made from it is much better than 
that which is made from all wheaten flour, — that is, in the 
estimation of those who have eaten the bread. 



40 Uses of the Potatoe. 

" Two hundred bushels of potatoes to the acre, is called by 
the farmers an average crop in Maine, yielding, according to 
the foregoing experiments, about eight barrels of flour to the 
acre." 

The following article, extracted from the last number of the 
Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, will be found in- 
teresting in this connection : — 

" In Germany, a method has lately been introduced, of 
making flour from potatoes, which has not, I believe, been 
tried in this country, but which is recommended as giving 
a better, a more palatable, and a more abundant article of 
nourishment than the common process of preparing potatoe 
starch. This method consists in washing the potatoes, cut- 
ting them into slices, as we do turnips, steeping these slices 
for twenty-four hours in water containing one per cent, of 
sulphuric acid, (oil of vitriol) drawing off the acid water, 
washing them several times with pure water, drying them in 
a stove, and then grinding them in a common corn-mill. The 
flour thus obtained is pure white, and the refuse siftings or 
bran, seldom exceed five per cent, of the weight of the dried 
potatoes. The sulphuric acid in this process extracts the 
coloring matter of the potatoe, with certain other substances 
which would give the flour an unpleasant taste. This flour 
will not make good bread if used alone. It requires to be 
mixed with from one-half to one-third of wheaten flour." 

But the following is the most interesting piece of informa- 
tion that we have met with on this subject. It refers to the 
most economical method of using the potatoe crop as food for 
cattle : — 

" As I have said so much on the subject of potatoes, I may 
as well describe to you a method which has lately been re- 
commended in Denmark and Norway, for making the potatoe 
more available and more profitable in feeding cattle than it 
has ever hitherto been. You are probably aware that potatoe 



Uses of the Potatoe. 41 

fetarch can be readily converted into grape sugar, and that 
the syrnj-* obtained from it is largely employed for the manu- 
facture of brandy in the north of Europe, and even of the 
best brandy which comes from France. In the more north- 
ern of the French wine-growing provinces it is also mixed 
with the less sweet varieties of grape juice, so as to give an 
additional strength and richness to the wine. One of the 
methods by which the potatoe starch is converted into grape 
sugar, is to mix it with one tenth of its weight of ground malt 
diifused in water, and to keep the mixture for some hours at 
a moderate temperature. The starch dissolves, and the liquid 
becomes sweet from its conversion into grape sugar. This 
is the method which M. Bciggild, of Copenhagen, proposes 
to apply to the whole potatoe, in order to bring it into 
a soluble state, to make it more easy of digestion, and thus to 
increase its feeding properties. He washes his potatoes well, 
steams them thoroughly, and then, without allowing them to 
cool, he cuts them in a cylinder furnished internally with 
revolving knives, or crushes them in a mill, and mixes them 
with a small quantity of water and three pounds of ground 
malt to every one hundred pounds of the raw potatoes. This 
mixture is kept in motion, and at a temperature of one hun- 
dred and forty degrees to one hundred and eighty degrees 
Fahrenheit, for from one to five hours, when the thick gruel 
has acquired a sweet taste and is ready for use. Given in 
this state, the results of experimental trials are said to be — 

" 1. That it is a richer and better food for milk cows than 
twice the quantity of potatoes in a raw state. 

" 2. That it is excellent for fattening cattle and sheep, and 
for winter food : that it goes much farther than potatoes when 
merely steamed ; and that it may be economically mixed up 
with chopped hay and sti'aw. 

" I have before me a pamphlet, published at Christiania, by 
the Royal Society for Promoting the Improvement of Nor- 
4* 



42 Uses of the Potatoe. 

■waj, in which this method is strongly recommended ; also a 
letter from Copenhagen, dated 29th April, 1845, in which 
my correspondent writes as follows : — ' This invention has 
been more and more appreciated and apphed in my native 
country (Norway) and in Denmark, and the great advanta- 
ges with which stall-feeding may be introduced, at considera- 
bly less expense than formerly, render it suited to general 
promulgation.' — ' The method has more and more gained 
adherents, and further comparative experiments, made by 
scientific and experienced persons, have proved its superiority. 
Thus one of these experiments estabhshes that an increase of 
one and a half pounds of flesh is obtained from twenty-five 
pounds of potatoes — that the feeding of horses with this 
mash is found to be appUcable and cheap, and they all con- 
firm that potatoes used in this manner as food amply afibrd 
double the nutritive powers compared with the food formerly 
used.' I cannot here state my reasons for believing that 
there is really something worthy of attention in the alleged 
superior feeding qualities of the potatoe given in this state ; 
but I can strongly recommend you to make experiments upon 
this subject. If the potatoe can in this way be converted into 
a larger quantity of beef, mutton, or pork, than hitherto, an- 
other outlet will be provided for the potatoe crop, which may, 
perhaps, prove more profitable even than the manufacture of 
it into flour." 



PART II. 

THE POTATOE PLAGUE. 
Preliminary Remarhs. 

In the preceding pages I have collected important informa- 
tion on the history, cultivation, diseases and uses of the pota- 
toe. I commend that part of the book to the candid attention 
of the farming community, as it contains much that is new. 
The views of M. Thaer, especially, now for the first time 
republished to American readers, will claim their attention as 
being the mature experience of a distinguished cultivator, 
after years of observation into the nature of the tuber and 
the best modes of managing it. 

I now approach the great subject of this treatise with un- 
feigned diffidence. I would, in the outset, deprecate criticism, 
by the confession, that the material portions of information 
contained in these pages are not from my own knowledge, or 
the result of my individual experience. The work is com- 
posed of better materials than any one farmer or scientific 
cultivator could possibly furnish, were he even the most pro- 
found and practical in the land. It is a condensation of the 
opinions of farmers and scientific men from every part of this 
country and Europe, respecting every variety of the potatoe, 



44 The Potatoe Plague. 

grown under every variety of treatment, soil, and tempera- 
ture, and under every possible change or variation that can 
•be supposed with reference to it. 

It is ahnost impossible to over-rate the importance of an 
inquiry like the one we are about to make. Its influence upon 
the prosperity and wealth of nations maybe gathered from 
the fact that the potatoe crop of the United States alone is 
estimated at ninety-nine millions nine hundred and forty-three 
thousand bushels annually, and in New England it is thus 
stated by Mr. Ellsworth, in his report to Congress, in Janua- 
ry, 1845. 

Maine, - - - - 12,304,000 bushels. 
New Hampshire, - - 4,643,000 " 

Massachusetts, - - 4,050,000 « 

Rhode Island, - - - 812,000 « 

Connecticut, - - - 2,117,000 « 

Vermont, - - - - 6,158,000 « 



30,084,000 " 
Thus it will be seen, that the crop in New England, at a 
low estimation, is worth ten millions dollars annually, and the 
ROT threatens, if not the total desertion of this large source 
of productive Avealth, at least a very gi'cat diminution of the 
profits of the farmer, and a decrease much to be dreaded in 
the supplies of the most healthful, as it is the most universal, 
article of food for human consumption. 

It was hoped in 1844, that the disease had reached its cul- 
minating point, and that the year 1845 would witness a great 
falling off in its destroying effects, and that, like the Asiatic 
Cholera, and other similar diseases affecting the human con- 
Btitution, it would disappear and be heard of no more. 

This very desirable consummation, however, was not 
realized. The rot has prevailed more extensively this year 
than ever before, and not only throughout the wide extent of 



The Potatoe Plague. 45 

our own country are the complaints of entire failure or partial 
destruction heard, but the voice of lamentation and the fear 
of famine come to us with a foreboding moan from the British 
isles, and some of the countries of continental Europe. The 
rot this year has been universal in its effects, and the exi- 
gency has called forth particular and anxious inquiries into 
the nature of the disease, accounts of which, and the re- 
sults arrived at, are subjoined. 

It would, perhaps, be difficult to name a subject on which 
more has been written, or which has engaged the attention of 
more able men than the prevalent potatoe blight, rot, or by 
whatever name it may be called. The plague and the yellow 
fever have not been more anxiously discussed ; nor can it be 
denied that the subject is of almost equal importance. A 
calamity that involves the destruction of a great portion of 
the food and labor- of the civilized world, and reduces milUons 
of fellow-creatures to literal starvation, cannot be too dili- 
gently studied ; if, happily, thereby, the evil may be averted, 
checked, or in any considerable degree lessened. It is esti- 
mated by those more competent to form an estimate than I 
can pretend to be, that-three fourths, at least, of the potatoe 
crop of all Ireland will have been lost the present season. 
Supposing that the potatoe is the principal food of only four 
of the millions of that wretched country, what an amount of 
human suffering does the prospect present. 

I find, by a careful comparison of much that has been writ- 
ten on this interesting topic, that most of those who have 
made it a subject of inquiry, have fallen into the common 
error of generalizing too much, of deducing the rule from the 
particular instance, instead of tracing wherein the instance 
has coincided with, or deviated from, the rule. Now, there 
are countless varieties of the potatoe, and to suppose that the 
treatment which has succeeded with one, or two, or a dozen 
of these, is the one only means to be used with regard to the 



4:6 The Potatoe Plague. 

wliole family, however plausible oi" natural such deduction 
may be, is certainly not the way in which scientific knowledge 
has been brought to its present degree of perfection. Be- 
cause a certain mode of treatment has proved beneficial to a 
lymphatic inhabitant of the arctic circle, in a particular dis- 
ease, does it follow that the same mode would produce the 
same result on a sanguine or bilious temperament between the 
tropics.? Does it follow that the same laws and government 
to which New England quietly submits would be fitting for 
the island of Hayti, or one of the pseudo South American 
Republics ? Yet this is the process of reasoning and induc- 
tion that has been applied almost universally to the culture of 
the potatoe. 

One writer has tried one or two varieties of the root in 
certain soils and situations ; he has applied certain manures 
and a particular treatment of his own, and he therefore 
argues that what has succeeded or failed with his variety wiU 
be equally successful or otherwise, with the whole potatoe 
family. This is, to the multitude, very plausible and com- 
fortable doctrine ; they adopt it, and suffer, because they 
have not discovered that the. coat that fits a tall, thin man, 
will not fit a short, thick one, of equal weight. 

"We sometimes find, in investigating the reports of scientific 
men, that the same variety, planted and dug at the same 
season, from the same soil, and having i-eceived the same 
treatment, in short, as far as human sagacity can discern, 
having had precisely the same advantages and disadvantages, 
has shown very difierent results. In one field, the crop is 
healthy and abundant ; in another, it is scant, defective and 
diseased. The reader will find many instances of this kind 
by referring to the report of the Commissioner of Patents to 
the twenty-eighth Congress. What, then, is the inference ? 
Clearly that the disease is owing to some cause mdependent 
of culture, or soil, or weather, or atmospheric influence ; that, 



The Fotatoe Plague. &■ 

I think, must be plain to every capacity. Neither is the det- 
riment likely to have arisen from the presence of fungi, infu- 
sorii, or insects, where nothing of the kind has been discover- 
ed by the most vigilant observation. Indeed, it seems to me 
a death blow to either of these theories, that, in very many 
instances, the disease has broken out after the roots were 
dug, apparently in a sound and healthy condition, as well as 
the stalks. One cause remains ; an obvious, if not the only 
one — the difference in the quality of the seed planted, of 
which I shall have more to say in another place. 

It appears to me that there are many causes to which the 
failure of the potatoe crop the world over, may be attributed, 
without supposing any specific disease, epidemic, or maHg- 
nant influence whatever. The blight assumes different ap- 
pearances in different climates and regions. In some parts 
of Germany, the diseased potatoe becomes hard, like a stone, 
so that it requires considerable force to break it with a ham- 
mer ; in other parts it has been observed to turn fibrous and 
woody, or withered, or watery, or to turn into liquid putre- 
faction. Can it be that all these appearances are but differ- 
ent forms of one and the same disease ? 

Every one who knows what a potatoe is, knows that all 
kinds of potatoes do not bear the action of boiling water alike. 
One kind comes from the kettle watery or waxy, another 
mealy ; one requires twice as much time in cooking as anoth- 
er. Those who eat know not the cause ; but they know that 
it is so. They are satisfied to say that it is a good or a bad 
■ potatoe, and to eat or fling it away ; and they often come as 
nigh the fact without investigation as they could have done 
with it. The truth is, that it is not owing to culture, soil, or 
disease, that the fruit so turns out ; it is the nature of one 
variety of potatoe to be watery, and another to be mealy ; 
and we could not make it otherwise were we to study a thou- 
sand years. 



48 The Potatoe Plagtie. 

I have said that many tlieories have been broached in 
regard to the supposed potatoe epidemic. Most of them are 
entitled to respect, as the resuUs of the laborious investiga- 
tions of ingenious, learned, or practical men ; and I shall 
therefore briefly notice a few of them, with such comments 
as they appear to me to require. 

The first of these theories attributes the rot to too early or 
too late planting and digging. There is no doubt, in my 
mind, that either of these causes will injuriously affect a crop ; 
the failure on a field, or a farm, may justly be referred to 
either or both of them. It needs no ghost to tell me that 
green fruit is unwholesome, or that, if allowed to hang too 
long on the tree, it will rot ; but these causes are altogether 
insufficient to account for a decay extending over all Christen- 
dom, of many years duration, and of continually increasing 
progress. It cannot be that all, or even a great portion of 
those interested in the cultivation of the potatoe throughout 
the world, plant too late or too early, or fail to gather and 
store the harvest in its season. This theory will do, there- 
fore, for a district, but not for the whole temperate zone. 

The same reasoning will hold good of the effects of soils, 
manures, and seasons. These have their influences; they 
are partial and local ; but any considerable and general fail- 
ure may be prevented by care. It is hardly credible that 
they, or any of them, should, for a long series of years, exert 
the same baleful influence, every where. Besides, if this 
were the case, would this influence be confined to the potatoe 
alone, of all the vegetable kingdom ? Do we hear of any 
epidemic or general disease of any other vegetable ? "We do, 
indeed, hear, now and then, of a failure of the beet crop, or 
the crop of apples, here and there ; but the next year makes 
all right again, and if fruit fails in New England, we get it 
from New York and Jersey. The world is not an Egypt,, 



The Potatoe Plague. 49 

wliere the entire vegetation may be destroyed by too wet or 
too dry a season. 

These attempts to trace a general eflTect to partial causes 
appear to me very like the deductions drawn fiom the pre- 
tenck^d rules of phrenology. I examine a stranger's Iiead, and 
find the bump of destructiveness, for example, fearfully prom- 
inent. I therefore pronounce him a dangerous person ; but> 
on inquiry, 1 learn that he is a man of remarkably benign 
and (juiet temperament. "That," says the phrenological the- 
orist, " is because his organs of benevolence and reverence 
are equally developed, and neutralize his destructiveness." 
What practical use can be cut out of a science that defines na 
limits or proportions ? 

In like manner, " one intelligent farmer (we quote from 
the report above mentioned,) on his own farm, where the soil- 
was porous, lost none of a crop yielding two thousand bushels ; 
while of a field he purchased on a neighboring farm, where 
the soil was clayey, and retained much water, he lost the 
greater part of the cro|)." Hence he argues that the soil and 
season together caused the injury, and so, undoubtedly ihey 
did ; but, supposing there had been a drouth, the seed plant- 
ed in clay must have fared best. No general rule can be 
deduced from any such success or failure. From tliis and tlie 
concurrences of many other like instances, however, I draw 
the inference that a light soil is more congenial to the potatoe 
family, generally, than a heavy one. 

Another set of theorists attribute the potatoe disease to 
flies, or other insects. These, however, as far as satisfacto- 
rily observed, appear to be lio other than have been always 
found upon the potatoe, without producing any injurious 
effects. They are the common aphis or vegetable louse, and 
flies which confine their ravages to the leaves. It mi^lit be 
argued in favor, or rather in disfavor of these parasites, that^ 
by injuring the leaves, they deprive the tuber of its proper 
5 



50 The Potatoe Plague. 

nourishment ; but this will not at all account for the decay of 
roots dug in an apparently healthy state, after being stoi-ed. 
Again, we have a goodly array of proofs that insects of dif- 
ferent kinds are found in the diseased potatoe, both in the 
tops and the tubers ; but it is by no means sure that they are 
the cause of the disease ; on the contrary it seems highly 
probable that they are generated by it. This theory has, 
comparatively, few supporters, and does not seem to be con- 
sidered entitled to much consideration by the learned in such 
matters. 

A third theory, of Avhich Doctor Hitchcock, of Amherst, is 
the most prominent supporter, attributes the universal sick- 
ness of the potatoe to " atmospheric agency, too subtle for the 
cognizance of our senses, like those which bring such epi- 
demics as the influenza and the cholera over particular dis- 
tricts or continents ? Modern science," he adds, " has shown 
us that many of the most powerful agencies of nature are 
concealed from common and even acute observation. May 
there not be others, yet undiscovered, which deeply affect the 
delicate machinery of organic life ? " 

Aye, truly may tliere ; and there may be a sixth sense, 
and a measure to infinity, and a limit to time and eternity. 
It is much easier to ask than to answer questions, and, when 
they relate to things confessedly beyond or above human 
intelligence, it is hardly worth while to ask them. There 
may, nay, there must be a cause for the yellow fever, and the 
cholera, and the potatoe plague ; but if it is not within the 
capacity of the senses, it is hardly worth while to grope for 
it. I do not mean to undervalue inquiry, of any kind ; but 
it seems to me that it is time enough to seek the transcenden- 
tal causes of an effect, when the visible, tangible, and palpable 
ones have been thoroughly examined. It is not proved, — 
there is no evidence beyond conjecture, that yellow fever or 
cholera is dependent or consequent on atmospheric agency ; 



The Potaioe Plague. 51 

neither do I see any reason even to guess such a cause of the 
potatoe plague. 

A great number of experimentalists contend that the potar 
toe rot is attributable to the fermentation of animal manure, 
and it strikes me, forcibly, that the rapid, malignant rot of a 
great proportion of the lost crops, may justly be attributed 
to this cause. Moi^e instances where the result of this mode 
of treatment has proved fatal to the plant are adduced than 
of any other. I cannot altogether withhold credence from 
such a mass of concurrent testimony. Wherever potatoes 
have been manured with animal matter, and especially barn- 
yard manure, in the hill, and when they have been planted 
before such compost has been allowed to disintegrate and as- 
similate with the soil, the rot seems to have been the invaria- 
ble consequence. On the other hand, it appears that the 
disease seldom appears on virgin soil, or newly bix)ken sward 
land. I the more incline to the belief that this theory is more 
extensively corroborated in practice than any of those I have 
thus far noticed, from the fact that, of the potatoes treated 
with animal manure, those which lie nigh the outside of the 
hill are found best and soundest, while those in the centre, 
among the manure, are most specked and rotten. 

It is not conclusive, however, that the disease can be stop- 
ped by planting on new or sward land, inasmuch as potatoes 
dug from such land sound, have often been found to rot after 
storing, so as to have been entirely lost before spring. Neith- 
er does this solution of the mystery suflEice, even partially, to 
account for the extent of the injury in other countries ; for 
we do not know how potatoes are manured there, or whether 
they are manured at all. All that can be predicated on the 
evidence before us is, that manuring with new animal matter 
is calculated to cause loss and injury. 

There is yet another theory that I feel bound to notice in 
this connection, inasmuch as it is advanced by a very intelli- 
gent gentleman, (Mr. Teschemacher, of Boston,) as the result 



52 The Potatoe Plague. 

of a series of scientific experimenls made by him. He has 
detected in the potatoe the growth of a fungus analogous to 
the mushroom family. It is usually seen as a gi-een moald, 
and is often found in the cores of apples and the interior of 
nutshells. The seeds are invisible to the naked eye, easily 
carried about by the wind, and penetrate wherever the air 
can enter. Their extensive dissemination is, therefore, easy. 
When they fall on the potatoe, in circumstances favorable to 
germination, the blight, or decay, is the consequence. The 
dry rot in timber proceeds from an analogous cause. 

Though maintained by several learned men, I do not deem 
this theory a very probable one. It is rather difficult to con- 
ceive a fungus alighting on the tops of a plant and thence 
growing its subterranean way downward to the tuber ; and, 
when arrived there, if it ever does so arrive, there is no con- 
clusive testimony that it produces decay. That a parasite 
vegetable can live and propagate itself in the capillary ves- 
sels of another vegetable, is a supposition extraordinary, to 
Bay the least ; and, if it descend the outside of the stalk to the 
tuber, how does it penetrate the skin and first appear, where 
one would naturally least expect to find it, in the heart of the 
potatoe? This theory ha?, at least, the, merit of novelty, to 
recommend it; but I cannot concede it my belief without fur- 
ther evidence. It appears to me much more likely that the 
potatoe fungus, like the supposititious potatoe fly, is an acces- 
sary after the fact ; a consequence, and not a cause of the 
disease. 

There are other some, who ascribe the potatoe plague to 
the occurrence of a honey dew, a thing which, it appears, 
was known to th« ancients ; but is certainly so little known to 
the moderns that I am sure they will not take it as an afi'ront 
that I tell them what it is. 

Early in the mornings of May or June, after a long 
drought, in Carolina, and after a succession of warm days and 
cool nights, there is found on the leaves of plants a fluid like 



The Potatoe Plague. 53 

tliluted honey, transparent, and tasting like the syrup of re- 
fined sugar. It thickens as the sun rises, and ceases to be 
fluid by ten or eleven o'clock. 

I leave it to the reader's ingenuity to discover how the 
honey dew of Carolina can afflict the poor potatoes of Yan- 
keedom, where it has not been seen for a hundred years, if 
ever, and how a disease that originated thirty years ago, in 
Europe, certainly, and pi'obably in Ireland, should at last 
have found its primal cause among the alligators of North 
America. This theory seems to me too absurd to demand 
serious refutation. 

Having now stated what I believe but partially and what I 
do not believe at all, the reader is, perhaps, desirous to know 
what I do believe. I say, I have no tlieory but nature's, but 
that which is consistent with experience and common sense, 
but that will account for the potatoe plague, in all its phases, 
whenever and wherever it may appear ; and which, while it 
detects the cause of the disease, also prescribes the remedy. 

But, firstly, 

There are some things certain, for which I ask no man to 
take my word, and which it may be of advantage to all to 
learn, viz : — 

1. The disease js not confined to any particular kind of 
soil or to any locality. Some assert that it pertains exclu- 
sively to dry soil ; othei's as stoutly maintain that it belongs 
only to wet. 

2. It does not exclusively affect any particular kind or 
kinds of potatoes. 

3. The affected potatoes, like other diseased vegetables, 
are unwholesome, if not poisonous. 

4. Decomposition proceeds more rapidly among the infect- 
ed potatoes, when placed in a heap ; whence I do not infer, 
as many others do, that it is best to defer digging till late in 
the Fall. 

5* 



64 The Potatoe Plague. 

It is an undenied, uncontroverted, uncontrotertibTe aiid 
undeniable fact that, in both the animal and vegetable king-- 
• doms, between which there is a close analogy, every stock 
■propagated for a long course of years within itself, exhausts 
'its vittfl energies and deteriorates. This has been known to 
all nations, in all ages ; this is the reason of the wise prohi- 
bition of the intermarriages between near relatives ; this i& 
the cause of the deterioration of most of the reigning families 
in Europe ; and hence it is that there are no more heroes 
among the Bourbons, or wise men among the Guelphs. The 
intermarrying cretins and cagots have transmitted their taint- 
ed blood to a race of dwarfs and idiots, and — but why need 
I multiply instances ? — every practical farmer and sports- 
man knows the inevitable consequence of "breeding in and 
in," and breeding from defective specimens. And this dete- 
rioration is as true and certain in the vegetable kingdom. 
The scrub oaks, and dry, short grass of the western prairies 
attest it. That the j^otatoe is not exempt from this inherent 
tendency to deterioration, I shall cite two, among a thousand 
evidences. 

For thirty years, or more, this disease has been making 
slow and insidious progress in Europe ; but it is not until 
quite lately that it has excited any alarm on this continent. 
What does this show, if not, that the old stocks of Europe, 
having had time to exhaust their vital energies, have at last 
fallen into inevitable decay, which is but beginning among 
the younger stocks of America? The once famous apple 
potatoe of Ireland, for a long series of years the pride and 
boast of the island, at last showed such signs of decay that the 
cultivation of it was entirely abandoned. This happened 
some years ago, and the rest of the Irish stocks appear to be 
now further advanced in the same progress. 

In another famous potatoe growing country, Nova Scotia, 
the progress of the disease, and its arrest, speak vol^imes in 



The Potatoe Plague. 55 

proof of the trutli of this theory. For many j^ears it j)ervacl- 
ed particular farms, sometimes appearing in the stalk, long 
before the potatoe had arrived at maturity ; sometimes after 
it was harvested and put into the cellar, and what shows con- 
clusively that this was caused by reproducing from the same, 
and from defective seed, is, that after ineffectually trying 
many other remedies, the suffering farmers hit upon the true 
one. They planted the balls, and thus procured new seed, 
which, in two. or three years, came to full size and maturity, 
and were proof to the prevailing disease. 

A wa-iter who appears to understand this subject, (the edi- 
tor of the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser,) says, "The latter 
oi)inion in Scotland, Germany, Sweden and Russia, is, that, 
by long propagation, Avitliout recurring to the natural seed of 
the plant, it has lost a portion of its vital power, and hence is 
extremely prone to blight, to rust and to rot." 

Now, though there are several varieties, and good ones, 
which produce no balls or blossoms, it is not thence positively 
to be inferred that they have lost none of- their vital power. 
The old age of a stock comes on gradually, and tliese, it is 
probable, though they have not reached the stage of visible 
decay, are not far from it. Neither does the fact that some 
new varieties have suffered more than some old ones, militate 
very strongly against my position, unless it can be proved that 
the said new varieties, were not only from seed of a new 
stock, but seed of a healthy and perfect quality. It does ap- 
pear that entirely new varieties, and seed obtained from new 
countries have, on the w-hole, suffered much less than old 
ones. 

It is self-evident that, as sickly and weakly parents are 
seldom blessed with strong and healthy offspring, so neither 
will imperfect seed produce perfect, thriving plants. I there- 
fore recommend, where seed is suspected, to come to the 
root ai the evil, as did the agricultui-ists of Ireland, in the 



§6 The Potatoe Plague. 

matter of the apple potatoe, and as the Nova Scotians do \ 
by rejecting it altogether. The potatoes planted should be of 
good size, and not cut into small pieces. You may as well 
expect a vigorous blade of corn from a diminutive, shrivelled 
grain, as a strong plant from a small potatoe. There never 
was a more fatal error than the common one that " any pota 
toes are good enough for planting." 

It is confidently asserted by many writers, and I believe it 
to be true from by own experience and observation, that the 
weakness of the seed is usually caused by over-ripeness ; that 
is, by coming to full maturity before being taken from the 
ground. The best potatoe grower^ dig their seed potatoes 
before they have quite completed their growth. They are 
fidl of sap, and remain so. From the fact that they are too 
waxy for the table, they are the fitter for seed. Seed pota- 
toes should not be of a mealy quality, nor should they be 
stored so that they will heat, or be kept out of the ground 
long after they are cut for planting. 

It does not follow that all potatoes of what are called new 
varieties are necessarily equally new. Some of them may 
have gone through more generations than others. I have 
been forcibly struck with the truth, as it seems to me, that 
most varieties now in vogue are actually dying slowly of old 
age, the principles of decay being more or less quickened by 
unfavorable seasons or unskillful management. The chenan- 
go, for example, has been among the longest cultivated by 
farmers, and has been, perhaps, the most afiected by disease. 
English whites and reds have not suflTered so much, being 
of a hardier constitution ; but they, too, have, for years, been 
showing symptoms of decay. Perhaps the wisest course , 
universally, would be to obtain new varieties from the seed, 
or to resort to the wild South American original. 



CHAPTER 1. 

Some Account of the Appearance nf the Disease in Different 
parts of the World, and the Means taktn to arrest its 
Progress. 

The British Government have issued a commission to 
proceed to Ireland, for the purpose of examining into the 
causes of the disease. The commission consists of Profes- 
sors Kane, Lindley and Playfair. Their first report, directed 
merely towards improper methods of storing tlie crop, has 
been published by the Irish government, and distributed by 
means of the constabulary, through the whole country. 

In Ireland the official inquiry is essentially aided by the 
important evidence collected by various diligent inquirers, 
especially by the Royal Irish Agricultural Improvement 
Society, a most zealous and useful association, and the officers 
of the Royal Dublin Society. In England the Rev. M. J. 
Berkeley and INIr. Edwaid. Jolley, are occupied with a mi- 
nute investigation of the subject for the Horticultural Society, 
in the mycological and chemical points of view ; and in Scot- 
land the Agricultural Chemistry Association have put forth 
a circular inviting the public to subscribe ^^i^e hundred founds 
for the expense of an entomologico, botanicc, chemico prac- 
tical examination of the matter. 

The following is the report above alluded to : 



58 The Potatoe Plague. 

Board Room, Eoval Dublin Society, ) 
24lh "October, 1845. J 

My Lord, — We, the undersigned Commissioners, ap- 
pointed by Her Majesty's Government to report to your 
Excellency on the state of disease in the potatoe crop, and on 
the means of its prevention, have the honor to inform your 
Excellency that we are pursumg our inquu-ies with unremit- 
ting attention. 

We are fully sensible of the important and difficult nature 
of the inquiry, and therefore are unwilling to offer, at the 
present moment, any final recommendations, as we are still 
receiving evidence, and awaiting the results of various ex- 
periments nov/ in progress. But at the same time we ought 
to state to your Excellency that we have reason to hope that 
the progress of the disease may be retarded by the applica- 
tion of simple means, which we trust may appear worthy 
of adoption, until we are enabled to offer further recom- 
mendations. 

In the present communication we avoid entering into any 
account of the origin or nature of the disease ; but we would 
particularly direct attention to the ascertained facts, that 
moisture hastens its progress, and that it is capable of being 
communicated to healthy potatoes when they are iu contact 
with such as are already tainted. A knowledge of these 
facts, determined, as they have been, by experiment, and 
agreeing with the scientific information obtained as to the 
causes and nature of the disease, lead us to propose the adop- 
tion of the following plan for diminishing the evils arising 
from the destructive malady : 

In the event of a continuance of dry weather, and in soils 
tolerably dry, we recommend that the potatoes should be al- 
lowed, for the present, to remain in the land; but if wet 
weather intervene, or if the soil be natui-ally wet, we consider 
that they should be removed from the ground without delay. 



The Potatoc Plague. 5S 

WTien the potatoes are dug out of the ground, we are de- 
cidedly of opinion that they should not be pitted in the usual 
way, as the circumstances under which potatoes are placed in 
ordinary pits are precisely those which tend to hasten their 
decay. 

We recommend that potatoes when dug should be spread 
over the field, and not collected into heaps, and if the weather 
continue dry and free from frost that they should be allowed 
to lie upon the field for a period of time not exceeding three 
days. 

The potatoes, after being thus dried and improved in their 
power of resistipg disease by the means proposed, should 
then be sorted, by carefully separating those which show any 
tendency to decay. Those potatoes which appear to be 
sound should then be placed about two inches apart in a 
layer, and over each layer of potatoes should be placed a 
layer of turf ashes, or dry turf mould, or dry sand, or burned 
clay, to the depth of a few inches. Thus will be formed a 
bed of potatoes, each potatoe being completely separated from 
the other by a dry absorptive material ; upon this bed, 
another layer of potatoes should be spread in like manner, 
and be also covered with the dry materials employed ; as 
many as four layers may thus be placed one above the other, 
and when the heap is completed, it should be covered with 
dry clay, straw, heath, or any other material adapted to 
protect it from rain. 

In the event of the weather becoming wet these recom- 
mendations are not applicable. In that case we would advise 
that the potatoe? be packed in small heaps, with either straw or 
heath interposed, and well covered ; in such a situation they 
would become as well dried as seems practicable under the 
circumstances. Where outbuildings exist, it would be ad- 
visable that this mode of temporary packing should be carried 
on in those places. If there be no outhouses the heaps may 



60 The Potaloe Plague. 

be left in the open field. We, however, particularly recom- 
mend that potatoes should not be removed into inhabited 
rooms. 

With regard to the treatment of potatoes already attacked 
with the disease, we have to state that in this early stage of 
our investigation we do not feel justified in proposing to your 
Excellency any mode of positive treatment, — this subject we 
reserve for a future report ; but we may remark tliat expo- 
sure to light and dryness, in all cases, retards the progress of 
alterations, such as the disease in question, and we therefore 
suggest that all such potatoes should, as far as possible, be so 
treated. 

We do not mean to represent that these recommendations, 
if carried into effect, will prevent the occurrence of disease in 
potatoes, but we feel assured that the decay will extend less 
rapidly and less extensively under these circumstances than 
if the potatoes, when taken from the ground, be at once pitted 
in the usual manner. Neither do we offer these suggestions 
to your Excellency as a final means of securing the ciop, but 
merely as a method of i-etarding the progress of an enemy 
whose history and habits are yet but imperfe(;tly known, 
whilst we endeavor to ascertain the means of more com- 
pletely counteracting its injurious effects, if any such can 
be discovered. 

All which we submit to your Excellency's consideration,, 
and remain your P^xcellency's obedient and faithful servants, 

ROBEKT Kank, 
John Lindlet, 
Lyon Playkair. 

In France, the French Academy of Arts and Sciences 
deputed M. Charles Morren, of Liege, to examine into the 
cause of the potatoe rot. Mr. Morren is a foreigner, and his 
selection by the French, for this inquiry, is a sufficient guar- 



The Potatoe Plague. 61 

antee for his talents and ability. This gentleman states the 
result of his investigation to be, that the rot is caused by a 
fungus, the spores or seeds of which exist in vast quantities 
in the atmosphere, and this opinion has been generally re- 
ceived as true by the best informed circles in Europe. But 
the letter is a document so impoiiant to the present question,, 
as conveying the prevailing opinions that are entertained on' 
this subject in Europe, that we quote it below. 

Mr. Morren, after stating that the evil has prevailed in 
Belgium for several years, though to a far less alarmmg- 
degree than at present, proceeds : 

" The real cause of the evil is a fungus, or sort of mush- 
room, which the learned will classify vinder the genus hotrydis, 
but which agriculturists, without further specification, will call 
a spot, or blemish, or blotches. This mushroom is of ex- 
treme tenuity, but it breeds amazingly, and reproduces itself 
by thousands. Its stems are formed of little, straight, hollow 
threads, which bear on their summits one or more branches, 
always divided into two, and at the end of these branches 
reproductive bodies are found, which have the form of eggs, 
but which are scarcely the hundredth part of a millimetre in 
size. It will be said that this is a very small body to do sa 
much mischief; but I answer that the itch is not a disease 
the less to be feared because the acare which produces it can 
only be seen by the aid of the microscope. 

After the formation of the yellow spot, and the develope- 
ment of the liotrydis on the leaf of the potatoe, the stalk 
receives the deleterious influence. Here and there its epi- 
dermis turns brown, blackens, and, following with the micro- 
scope the phases of the evil, you perceive that it is by the 
rind that the stalk is attacked. The morbid agent carries its 
action from the rind on the epidermis, and though this last 
does not always disclose mushrooms, it is not the less for that 
struck with death. 

6 



62 The Potatoe Plague. 

The infection soon descends into the tubercle itself. If 
the disease follows its course, the tubercle mortifies forthwith. 
A potatoe is not a root, hut a branch, whence it follows that a 
tubercle contains a marrow, which is the eatable part to be 
preferred, and a separate rind ; between the marrow and the 
rind there is a zone of vessels, which represent wood. This 
construction is apparent to any one who chooses to cut a thin 
slice of potatoe, and place it between his eye and the day 
light. The infection attacks that part which receives the sap 
on its descent. 

By following the progress of the evil upon a great number 
of tainted tubercles, I have been able to see how the evil, by 
one continuous progress, at length reaches the heart itself of 
the potatoe, and corrupts the vegetable entirely. The skin 
of the diseased potatoe comes off easily ; the flesh cracks 
under the knife : a flatulent liquid drips from the potatoe ; a 
musty, and presently an animal smell, analogous to the smell 
of mushrooms recently cut, manifests itself,, and occasions 
considerable nausea. * » * 

The evil being traced to its source, the cultivator must 
direct all his attention to the destruction of the fungus, or 
mushroom, for it is unfortunately but too true that all the 
parasites of this genus once introduced into a country, remain 
there and propagate. This year the epidemic has been gen- 
eral ; the germ exists every where : millions upon millions of 
propagules, if their numbers are not diminished this year, 
will next year attack the plants, and then it will be more 
difiicult to eradicate the scourge. 

It is essential to adopt the following precaution : 

When the leaves are decidedly spoUt, cut down the vines 
forthwith, and burn them on the spot, instead of taking them 
away. 

When certain varieties or certain localities are free from 
the scourge at the time of the harvest, it is always prudent to 



The Potatoe Plague. 63 

burn the leaves, for a field may appear secure from the 
botrydis, when it is not so ; several leaves are attacked ; 
these leaves throw the propagule on to the tubercles, which, 
if preserved for the purposes of reproduction, will spread the 
plague the following year. 

If the potatoes themselves are attacked, it is essential io 
separate as speedily as maytte, the potatoes that are tainted 
from those that are not. Turn the sound ones over to account 
as soon as possible, for they are not noxious so long as the 
rind does not become yellow. The diseased ones should be 
burnt. 

As it is probable that the tubercles preserved for seed will 
be infected with the spawn of the mushroom, it would be ad- 
visable for cultivators who can, to procure tubercles for 
reproduction from places where the present scourge is 
unknown. 

In case of using for reproduction the tubercles of crops 
visited by the plague this year, it will be necessary to sub- 
mit them, previous to planting, to the agency of lime, as it is 
practised with wheat and all plants that are liable to invasion 
by parasitical bodies- The process ought to be by the im- 
mersion of the tubercles in lime water. Fifty pounds of 
lime, a quarter of a pound of sulphate of copper, and six 
pounds of marine salt, for twenty-five quarts of water, consti- 
tute a preparation, the utility of which, in the destruction of 
parasite vegetation, has been experienced by a great number 
of well-informed cultivators. 

In the plantations of the spring of 1846, it is essential to 
plant potatoes in fields as far as possible removed from those 
actually infected this year, to avoid the danger from the 
retention in the soil of the spawn of the fungus. 

The use of lime and manure salt, with a slight mixture of 
sulphate of copper, is, as I have already said, of acknowl- 
edged efficacy in the destruction of parasite germs. Conse- 



64: The Potatoe Plague. 

quently, to powder over with sucli a mixture, a soil in which 
diseased potatoes have grown, is a good operation for destroy- 
ing in that land the germs of the scourge. The operation 
ought to be recommended everywhere. 

The storing of potatoes from fields that have this year been 
attacked by the scourge, in cellars, caves, &c., will certainly 
be to deposit the spawn of the mushroom in those very places. 
They should, therefore, before receiving the potatoes, be 
thoroughly cleansed, and scoured with lime, or ground char- 
coal scattered over the bottom, (and on the potatoes as they 
are stored,) which will conclude the series of operations, the 
most rational and the most certain for destroying, if possible^ 
the evil at its root. 

C. H. MORREN, 
Member of the Royal Academy of Scienea* 
Liege, August 14, 1845." 

The Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, sixth vol- 
ume, contains an article on " The prevention of curl and dry 
rot in potatoes," by H. S. Thompson, which is valuable and 
interesting as it contains the result of extensive observation 
and experiments on the subject, for the, last five years. The 
editor of the New England Farmer thinks that " the disease 
therein described is analogous, if not identical with the one 
so prevalent in many sections of our own country," and, he 
adds, "it may vary in its effects in different soils, seasons, or 
climates." Mr. Thompson commences his article by first 
mentioning the results to which he has been led, which are : 

" That curl and dry rot are caused by leaving the pota- 
toes intended for seed in the ground until ripe, and that, on 
the other hand, these diseases may be prevented by taking up 
the seed potatoes whilst the tubers are unripe and the tops 
still green." 

1840. " Having had my attention strongly drawn to the 



The Potatoe Plague. 65 

failure in the potatoe crop," says Mr. Thompson, "I paid 
more than ordinaiy attention to the selection of seed, and in 
1840 planted sixteen acres with potatoes, making choice of 
two kinds of round red varieties, both of them new to my land. 
The gentleman from whom I obtained them, having two farms, 
one of stiff, the other of light land, — had changed his sets 
regularly from one to the other. I planted them on a sandy 
loam, which was in a high state of cultivation, and my reason 
for planting it with potatoes was solely because I was aware 
if sown with corn it would be so lodged as to be nearly 
Avorthless. They were planted in the last week in April. I 
naturally expected a heavy crop, but was much disappointed, 
as symptoms of curl soon appeared. This increased, and 
though few of the plants perished, nearly the whole were 
unhealthy. I was so much surprised at the appearance of 
curl that I watched and examined the plants at several 
periods of their growth, taking up roots here and there 
wherever I observed one either better or worse than its 
neighbors. The appearance of all those affected was nearly 
the same. The set, as long as the weather was dry, crum- 
bled and perished, — the disease seeming to proceed from 
certain spots or pits as centres, and gradually destroying the 
whole set. The cut sets were the worst, and, the decay 
always commenced from the cut side of the set, but the 
whole ones also suffered. 

As soon as the weather became wet, these appearances 
changed, and the diseased portion of the set resembled a 
sponge, which after a short time became black and offensive. 
The effect on the plant was well marked. Wherever the 
disease had made a decided impression on the set, the stalks 
of the plant were marked with brown streaks and patches, 
and evidently showed that the juices which they were con- 
ducting from the set were vitiated and noxious. The part 
of the stalk to which I directed my attention was that imder- 
6* 



66 The Potatoe Ptagiie. 

ground, in which it wa3 easy to trace the progi*ess of the 
disease, from their being white and nearly transparent. 
Wherever the stalk was curled, I found the sets diseased. In 
JBome cases the disease carried the day, and the set reaching 
an advanced stage of decomposition, and the stalks below 
•ground becoming quite brown, the tops died away. In a 
subsequent season (1844) most of the sets attacked perished; 
but on tliis occasion a great majority of the plants threw 
out strong roots, and finding an abundant supply of food, 
maintained a constant struggle with the disease, and event- 
ually yielded a good half crop. 

The experience of this season convinced me that curl, dry 
'rot and wet rot, are one and the same complaint ; that curl is 
a mild attack of the disease, which, when violent, destroys 
the set before it can germinate ; and that it assumes the form 
of diy or wet rot according to the degi'ee of moisture of the 
soil or season. I have repeatedly seen potatoes affected with 
dry rot, in a few days assume appearances by which wet rot 
is usually described; and this change was evidently attrib- 
. utable to heavy rains which had fallen in the interval. 

1841. As T still considered the red potatoes above-men- 
' tioned to be good Kinds, and that the occurrence of curl was 
accidental, I determined to give one of them another trial ; 
and accordingly, I planted about an acre and a half with sets 
from the crop of 1840, which had suffered so much from curl. 
They were planted as late as the 8th of June, the weather 
dry and unfavorable ; yet in spite of these disadvantages they 
came up well, grew luxuriantly, and produced an excellent 
crop. Side by side with these potatoes two other kinds were 
grown ; one a black kidney, a very superior potatoe for the 
table, the other a cattle potatoe. These were bought sets, 
nor do I know how they had been previously treated. Both, 
however, were failing crops. The experience of this year 
was valuable, running directly counter to what has been so 



The Potatoe Plague. 67 

frequently asserted by the authorities, namely, " that curl is 
sure to increase, and that curled sets are to he avoided like the 
plague" The explanation of the rule and of this exception 
to it, appears to me to be as follows : 

Curled potatoes ripen early, some weeks before the healthy 
plants, and consequently are almost always too ripe, when 
taken up, to make good sets, and if so used the disease will 
rapidly increase each successive season. 

In this instance, however, the infected potatoes were taken 
up before they were ripe, and proved tc be as good sets as 
could be used. The potatoes above-mentioned were taken 
up the second week in November, 1841. Having been 
planted so late the round reds were not ripe ; the black kid- 
neys, a much earlier variety, were. 

1842. The same potatoes were used for seed this year. 
The unripe reds produced an excellent crop, without, so far 
as I am aware, a single failing plant. The ripe black kid- 
neys were again a failing crop. ^ In the middle of May I 
planted, with these black kidneys, a small piece of old grass 
land, as a prepai'ation for forest trees. This plot of ground 
had been from time immemorial flowed over by the waste 
water from an old and ill-constructed farm yard, immediately 
adjoining, and was therefore as rich as could well be im- 
agined. The potatoes had immense tops, but very small tu- 
bers ; and, when boiled, the favorite black kidneys seemed 
quite to have changed their character. Instead of the fine 
mealiness for which they are remarkable, they now bore 
much resemblance to a piece of. yellow soap. They also 
continued growing till the frost and snow made it dangerous 
to leave them any longer in the ground, and they were taken 
up stiU thoroughly unripe. The round reds, grown on old- 
going land, were taken up ordinarily ripe, and were mealy 
and good. 

1843. These two kinds were again used for seed,, and 



153 The Potatoe Plagae, 

the white reds had numerous failures, but the unripe black 
kidneys were as even and vigoi'ous a crop as could be wished. 
I had not yet learnt to attribute the failure to its right cause, 
and was accordingly much puzzled to account for the curl 
among the round reds, which had thriven so well the two 
previous seasons. In consequence of the heavy fall of snow 
in October, they were taken up earlier than was intended, 
and the red potatoes were not ripe, but the black kidneys, 
(a capital crop) were. 

1844. It was during the spring of 1844, that I became 
convinced that the maturity of the potatoe intended for seed 
materially affected the vigor of the future plant ; and the crop 
of this yeai' furnished me with some facts strongly corrobora- 
tive of this opinion. The ripe black kidneys again failed to 
a great extent ; not less, I think, than half the sets perished 
without vegetating, or only showed puny curled tops, and died 
without forming tubers larger than peas. The unripe reds 
were planted in a particularly unfavorable place, namely, an 
old lane which had been just added to an adjoining field, and 
was so hard and dry that parts of it had to be broken up with 
pickaxes. In consequence of the long drought the planting 
was delayed for several weeks in hopes of rain, but ias none 
came they were put into the ground as dry as dust and plant- 
ed without manure ; no rain, with the exception of a light 
shower, fell till the potatoes were up. Still, in the whole of 
the piece, rather more than an acre, I could not discover that 
a single plant had failed, and the braird was miiversally 
strong and healthy. It will be well to present their results 
in a tabular form. I shall assume that the red potatoes 
bought in 1840, and the black kidneys in 1841, had been 
taken up ripe ; and their mealiness will justify such an as- 
sumption, as unripe potatoes are always watery, and unfit for 
the table. ' 



TJie Potatoe Plague. 



69 



Round Reds. 



Year. 


Seed taken up. 


Quality of crop- 


Quantity of crop. 


1840 


Ripe, supposed 


Curled 


Failing crop. 


1841 


Uni'ipe 


No Curl 


Good crop. 


1842 


Unripe 


No Curl 


Good crop 


1843 


Ripe 


Curled 


Indifferent crop 


1844 


Unripe 


No Curl 


Good crop 




Black Ividnets. 




1841 


Ripe, suijposed 


Curled 


Failing crop 


1842 


Ripe 


Curled 


Light crop 


1843 


Unripe 


No Curl 


Capital crop 


1844 


Ripe 


Much curled 


Very bad crop 



Had the above results been obtained by experience con- 
trived for the purpose, they could not have borne more direct- 
ly on the point in question, as we find in the wet summer of 
1843, and the extraordinary drought of 1844, as well as in 
the average seasons of 1841 and 1842, it accidentally hap- 
pened that part of my potatoe crop was grown from ripe, and 
another part from unripe gets, and in every case with success 
from the one, and failure from the other ; thus showing that 
-the seasons could not be blamed as the cause of curl. To 
make these instances still more conclusive, it also happened 
that each of the two very different kinds of potatoes named 
were alternately affected by or free from curl ; thus showing 
that it was not a peculiarity belonging to a particular kind 
of potatoe. 

Thus far I have detailed my own experience only ; but 
when it first occurred to me that over-ripening of the set was 
the cause of the curl, I naturally became anxious to compare 
the experience of others with my own, and make many in- 
quiries on the subject from other potatoe growers. The 
information thus received still more strongly confirmed me 
in my previous opinion, and I select one or two of the cases 



70 The Potatoe Plague. 

which appear to me most in point. The first gives the result 
of two opposite methods of treating potatoes intended for seed 
as practised by two intelligent farmers. 

The first farmer has planted the same kind of ash-top kid- 
ney for more than tert years. The first year or two he took 
up those intended for seed at the same time as those intended 
for consumption; but found that they grew so much during 
the winter that they were obliged to be sprouted twice, which 
weakened the set so much as to injure the crop. He then 
tried the efiect of leaving them longer in the ground — some- 
times as much as three months after the plant was ripe. This 
produced the desired effect of preventing the growth dui-ing 
winter ; but after some years' continuance he found the ger- 
minating power so much injured that they were a month or 
more later in coming up than those of his neighbors, treated 
in the ordinary way. In fact, he could scarcely get them to 
grow at all, and was forced to change his plan. 

The second farmer has grown ash-top kidneys for some 
years, and finds them better and earlier than when he first 
got them. Is in the habit of planting those he intends for 
sets after taking up his crop of cabbages, which is at the end 
of June or beginning of July. He also takes them up before 
they are ripe ; never finds them fail ; they grow earlier in 
spring than potatoes not so treated, and make stronger and 
healthier plants. 

The contrast between these two instances is very complete. 
Two men, living not above two hundred yards from one 
another, and whose gardens are almost precisely similar, 
grow the same kind of potatoe in the same seasons. The 
potatoes of the last named being taken up unripe, improve 
both in vigor and early maturity, while the first, ^vhich are 
left in the ground till over-ripe, will scarcely grow at aU. 

Another case. A farmer in Tawden, near Scarborough, 
(which some years ago supplied large quantities of potatoes 



The Potatoe Plague. 71 

for seed,) has been a potatoe grower for thirty years, used 
formerly to send five or six hundred bushels of Tawdon kid- 
neys annually to-Selby, where they were used for seed, and 
the produce sent to London. He used to grow two hundred 
bushels to the acre, but now considers fifty bushels a good 
crop ; has failed so repeatedly the last five years in growing 
a crop, that this year, 1844, he has none, and believes there 
is but one man in the township who continues to grow the 
kidneys. 

I will now state the chemical facts which appear to me to 
confirm and explain the above-mentioned results of practice. 
It is notorious to potatoe growers that a marked change takes 
place in the quality of the tuber when the stem and leaves 
wither, and that potatoes taken up when the plant is still 
growing, are watery, though a portion of the same plot, if of 
a good sort, and in suitable soil, taken up a few weeks later, 
will be found light and mealy. This is probably owing to the 
deposition of starch in the tuber by the descent of the sap, 
when the growth of the plant has ceased, and is apparently 
analogous to the very similar process described by Liebig as 
taking place in all perennial plants. 

" All the carbonic acid which the plants," remarks Liebig, 
speaking of perennial only, " now absorb, is employed for 
the production of nutritive matter for the following year. 
Instead of woody fibre, starch is formed, and is diffused 
through every part of the plant by the autumnal sap." To 
remove every doubt on the subject, hoAvever, I took up por- 
tions of two kinds of potatoes, growing in very different situ- 
ations, and a ripe and unripe sample of each, to an analyzing 
chemist, merely numbering the samples, and requesting to 
know the per centage of starch in each. The result was as 
follows : 



72 The Potatoe Plague. 











Water. 


Starch. 


Dry fibre. 


No. 


1, 


Black Kidneys, 


Unripe, 


68.7 


17.7 


13.5 


No. 


2, 


do. do. 


Ripe, 


72.0 


17.9 


10.0 


No. 


3, 


Round Reds, 


Unripe, 


69.8 


15.1 


15.0 


No. 


4, 


do. do. 


Rij)e, 


73.8 


17.9 


8.2 



Tlie proportion of water in the unripe samples here seems 
to be four per cent, less than in the ripe samples, having been 
taken up some weeks earlier, and kept out of the ground 
until the others were considered ripe enough. Neglecting 
the water as unconnected with the present inquiry, we find that 
the proportion of starch to the other solid matters is as 
177 : 135 in the unripe kidneys, but as 179 : 100 in the ripe ; 
or reducing both to a common measure, he have : 

Starch: other solid matters : : 131 : 100 in the unripe kid- 
neys. : : 179 : 100 in the ripe do. 

In the round reds reducing as before to a common meas- 
ure : 

Starch : other solid matters : : 100 - 100 in the unripe reds. 

216 - 100 in the ripe do. 

In each case it thus appears that the proportion of starch 
to the other solid matters had increased considerably in the 
interval which had elapsed between taking up the ripe and 
unripe parcels. The remark will probably be made here, 
that though an increase of starch has undoubtedly taken place, 
yet the quantity present was considerable before, why then 
should an addition to it injure the germinating power of the 
set ? To answer this question it is necessary to state briefly 
the doctrine propounded by the most eminent vegetable 
physiologists of the present day, who afiirm that during the 
act of commencing germination a substance called " diastase," 
is generated from the nitrogenous substances contained in 



The Potatoe Plague. 7B 

the germinating seed, which diastase assists in the conver- 
sion of starch into the gum, sugar, &c., which are required 
for the nourishment of the young shoot. The potatoe con- 
tains a very small per centage of nitrogenous matter. I 
would, therefore, venture the suggestion that the great addi- 
tion made in the process of ripening, to the already lai-ge stock 
of starch contained in the tuber, may be more than can be 
converted into the gum, sugar, «S:c., by the small quantity of 
diastase generated in the germinating potatoe. If this be the 
case, then it would follow that the diastase being mixed with 
too large a proportion of starch (like leaven mixed with too 
large a proportion of dough) only does its work imperfectly, 
and the result is a weakly shoot, whilst a portion of the 
starch, failing to receive the vitalizing influence of the dias- " 
tase, undergoes the natural course of decay, and produces the 
symptoms peculiar to dry-rot, wet-rot, or curl. This suppo- 
sition is, of course, pure theory, and must not be confounded 
with the facts on which it is based. To make it quite clear 
where the one ends and the other begins, I will veiy briefly 
recapitulate. Facts have been brought forward to prove that 
ripe sets are subject to curl, and vice versa, also that a large 
addition is made to the quantity of starch in the potatoe in 
the process of ripening. Direct experiment also proves that 
" diastase " is required for the germination of seeds, which 
diastase can only be formed from some substance containing 
nitrogen ; potatoes contain a very small proportion of such sub- 
stances, and therefore can have but very little diastase. Here 
our facts end, but from these premises I would hazard the 
deduction that if we allow our seed potatoes to ripen, they 
acquire more starch than can be made available to the grow- 
ing shoot ; which excess naturally decays, and then infects 
and injures, or even destroys, the plant with which it is con- 
nected. A similar effect is produced in the human subject 
when more food is taken into the stomach than the gastric 
7 



74 The Potatoe Plague. 

juice is able properly to digest. The imperfectly converted 
aliment produces various kinds of inconvenience, and, if 
persevered in, derangement of the whole system, though the 
food itself in moderation may be joerfectly wholesome. 

It would be doing injustice to the theory before stated, if 
it were sent forth to the public without a brief notice of 
some of the objections which at once occur to those conver- 
sant with the subject. The first that I shall allude to is, 
that the management of seed potatoes during winter, the 
mode of planting, and more especially the nature of the 
season after planting, exercise a very decided influence in 
modifying or increasing the potatoe failure ; which, at first 
sight, seems hardly reconcilable with the supposition that 
such failure is dependent on the degree of maturity of the 
seed potatoes wdien harvested. I at once admit that if seed 
potatoes are kept in too large a heap and allowed to fer- 
ment, or if kept so warm as to induce excessive growth 
during winter, or in any other way are so ti'eated as to 
weaken .their vitality, the sets will, many of them, fail, and 
others make weak and unhealthy shoots, very much resem- 
bling, and possibly identical with, curl. It must be borne in 
mind, however, that though I consider over-ripening of the 
seed to be the ordinary cause of curl, I by no means assert 
that it is the only one. I am wtII aware .that deficient man- 
agement will, especially if followed by long drought, produce 
failing crops, and whether such failure be due to curl or not, 
I can offer no opinion ; but the great puzzle to potatoe 
growers has been that, with the most careful management, 
failures continually occur, and tliese failures may, I think, be 
traced to ripe sets. That the influence of season is great 
I should be the last man to deny, as in two instances where 
my potatoe crops were affected with curl, (distinctly traceable 
to having used ripe sets,) they continued to get worse so long 
as the drought lasted, but on the occurrence of heavy rains 



T'he Potatoe Plague. 75 

they improved very much ; and this is quite in keeping with 
my theory, as when once the plalit has a stem and leaves 
whereby to eUiborate nourishment from the atmosphere, and 
roots which purvey from beUiw, a large supply of moisture 
will give it such au abundant flow of sap that the vitiated 
juice&of the decaying set will both be very much diluted and 
the plant will derive sufficient vigor from external sources 
to outgrow a slight ailment ; whereas in a droughty season, 
the plant is much more dependent on the set, and this" at such 
a time furnishes the poison in a concentrated form. 

The next objection I shall notice is, that one of the best 
ways of getting rid of curl hitherto known, is to grow the 
potatoes intended for seed on a piece of old meadow or other 
land that has been long uncropped. This is easy of expla- 
nation. Fresh land contains a supply of food which has 
been accumulating for years, and accordingly produces a 
more luxui-iant growth and later maturity. Every one must 
have remarked that in a dry season plants of all kinds are 
less fully developed, but ripen earlier. This is doubtless 
owing to the less liberal supply of nourishment which they 
receive ; for even where the land is abundantly manured, 
plants cannot avail themselves of it without moisture. When 
a plant has attained a certain stage of growth, even though 
considerably below its ordinary developement, should its sup- 
ply of food be stinted, either in consequence of drought, or of 
a scarcity of the necessary elements in the soil, it will at once 
proceed to form and mature its seed. This is readily observ- 
able in the case of weeds. The same species of grass which 
is common in our meadows will be frequently found grow- 
ing by a roadside, or even on a gravel walk, and in dry 
weather will flower and bear seed, though so stunted and 
dwarfish as scarcely to be recognizable. This will occur con- 
siderably earlier in the season than the time of ripening of 
the same species of grass in an ordinary meadow, and again 



76 The Potatoe Plague. 

the meadow-grown plant will ripen far before another of the 
same species grown by a ditch side or in other moist, rich 
soil, and this last will as much exceed the meadow plant in 
size and luxuriance as the one in the meadow did the one in 
the gravel walk. The Poa annua is a species of grass which 
may frequently be /ound in all the three situations above 
named. That potatoes are not exempt from this law of 
nature I have had abundant proof. On the occasion previ- 
ously mentioned, where I planted potatoes on a piece of rich 
old turf, soaked for years with the drainage of a farm-yard, 
they never did ripen, but grew on through the whole autumn, 
and were as green and vigorous in November as they had 
been in July. At last a heavy fall of snow came, with a 
severe frost, and in forty-eight hours they were as black as 
if they had been burnt, but the tubers were still thoroughly 
unripe, and were the very worst on the table and made 
the best sets that I have ever possessed. In 1844 I had 
also a strong instance. In reclaiming an old lane some 
parts had to be lowered and some hollows to be filled up, 
and both being planted with potatoes at the same time, those 
planted where the old hollows had been, and which now had 
a considerable depth of fresh soil, grew considerably taller 
and ripened some weeks later than those on the ridges whence 
the soil had been taken ; though even in these places consid- 
erable pains were taken to retain as much of the surface soil 
as possible ; and as the ridges and depressions ran parallel to 
each other for forty or fifty yards together, the marked dif- 
ference in the time of ripening caught the eye at once. I 
have also frequently observed that potatoes planted near 
hedgerow trees (especially ash) ripen earlier than the rest of 
the field. It thus appears, as well by the analogy of other 
plants as by direct observation of the potatoe itself, that a 
deficiency of nutriment produces early maturity, and vice 
versa. Fresh soil, it will at once be admitted, contains an 



The Potatoe Plague. 77 

extra supply of food ; potatoes, therefore, grown on such soil, 
will be in a growing state when those on old-going land will 
be quite ripe, and if harvested together the former will be 
unripe and make good sets. It is very probable, however, 
the more abundant supply of all the elements of nutrition to 
be found in fresh soil may have a considerable effect, and 
concur with the under-ripening of the seed in producing a 
healthy and vigorous plant. 



CHAPTER II. 

A Vievj of the different Theories entertained on the Potatoe 
Plague. 

The article from Mr. Thompson, which forms a large part 
of the preceding cljapter, has been given almost entirely as it 
was originally published, because it contains, I believe, the 
most rational theory that has yet been promulgated on the 
nature, cause, and cure of the Potatoe Plague. It is true 
that his argument does not extend so far as to cover the 
present appearances wjiich the plague has assumed, but it 
leads us to expect results precisely similar to those which are 
now recognized with reference to it, and may be regarded as 
prophetic, if, indeed, the view he has taken, be not assigned to 
the true cause, namely, a discovery of the causes producing 
the malady. A remarkable feature in the history of potatoe 
cultivation is, that it has been free from a variety of diseases, 
though, as before remarked, it has been subject to disease 
from a veiy early period of its existence. The Curl and the 
Taint, which last is considered a modification of the other, are 
the only diseases of which any mention is made by writers on 
the subject, from its fk'st introduction as a field crop to the 
present time. Now Mr. Thompson's article, though it is 
professedly on the curl in potatoes, looks forward to a devel- 
opement of this disease, assuming a malignant type, which 
would ultimate, as he has predicted, and exactly as we have 



The Potatoe Plague. 79 

experienced in the present crisis of the potatoe crop. If his 
view be correct, and we believe it is, we need look no fur- 
ther for the cause of the disease, for it is evident to all, that 
the great difficulty in finding a remedy to stay the progress 
of this fearful calamity has been, that its true nature waa 
not understood ; but being understood, a remedy, simple, 
and universal is at hand. Before entering upoa this part of 
the discussion, however, it will be necessary to give a view 
of other theories and opinions that are entertained, together 
with the experience and statements of cultivators in different 
parts of the country. 

A writer of considerable eminence in the field of Agricul- 
tural literature, says : 

" The first symptom of degeneracy of the plant in Scot- 
land, appeared about 1780, when the distemper called the 
curl was first noticed in the ,crop ; but it then occurred so 
rarely that very little notice was taken of it ; the evil grad- 
ually and extensively increased, when, about the year 1784 
or 1785, the whole crops of Lothian were seriously affected 
by it. A remedy, however, was accidentally discovered, by 
changing the seed from the high country ; and this was and 
has been the only remedy for the disease of the curl to the 
present day. At this early period the seed procured from a 
high country had to be changed eveiy three or four years, 
but it was found, as the cultivation of the plant increased, so 
did the disease, and eventually the whole seed had to be 
changed yearly, as it was found a new disease appeared in 
the fields — the seed only partially germinated — great blanks 
or failures took place — and many farmers lost almost their 
whole crops. This disease in the seed was called the wet 
and dry rot ; and, in many instances, seed from all situations, 
high and low, has now also failed. These two kinds of dis- 
ease which destroy germination have been variously ac- 
counted for. Some ascribe the cause to maggots and flies, 



•80 The Potatoe Plague. 

■who feed upen and destroy the seed plants ; but this is a 
<;onsequence, and not a cause, for maggots and flies are only 
•to be found on diseased or putrid vegetables ; they riot and 
^banquet on putrefaction ; it is their natural food, and there 
they are only to be found. Plant, then, a sound potatoe in 
a good soil, and, properly treated, it will find its way to the 
surface, and produce a good crop in defiance of maggots 
^and flies. 

The seeds of disease, then, must he in the constitution of the 
plant. 

In examining a diseased potatoe, which has blind eyes, and 
will not germinate, it is plain that there is canker on the 
skin, and plague spots all over it. This, if planted, will cer- 
tainly be attacked by the maggots and flies ; but the plant is 
in a state of decay or putrefaction — in fact a caput mortuum 
— and it properly belongs to ihe flies and maggots by right 
of inheritance. The great object to be attained, then, is to 
plant sound seed, and the maggots and flies will not relish 
it. It is generally allowed, and the idea has been long enter- 
tained, that it is quite impossible to raise seed potatoes in low 
situations or in a high temperature, without being affected 
with the curl ; but at an altitude of four hundred feet it 
^entirely disappears. In this there appears to be a very re- 
markable peculiarity in the nature and constitution of the 
plant ; but in looking to its origin, general history, cultivation 
and general management in this country, — its success and 
failure, — I have been led to a far different conclusion. In- 
deed, from what I have already stated, it must clearly appear 
to every one, that there can be only one cause for the fail- 
ure of the potatoe plant, to wit, over-cultivation. 

The first practical experience of failure which I met with 
on my own farm, struck me most forcibly. In the year 
1837, 1 had a small quantity of potatoes for seed, which I had 
received from high grounds. I thought them very fine, and 



The Potatoe Plague. 81 

having selected the best for seed, I manured the ground 
heavily in tlie drill, with the richest and best dung on the 
farm^ in order to have as many as possible for planting the 
succeeding year. The extent of the ground was about an 
acre, and I certainly obtained an excellent crop. But as I 
never planted a whole field in the same way without some 
variation by way of experiment, a few drills of similar seed 
were placed next to them, very moderately manured. At 
the time of taking up the cro[), the plants were still green 
in the tops. The few drills already mentioned were pitted 
on the end of a pit not meant for seed, and the produce of the 
acre was pitted by themselves. Next season I planted the 
greater part of the produce of the acre in the usual way, and 
lost one third of the crop. I also planted the produce of the 
few drills in the ordinary way, and had a little curl, but not 
a single blank. 

My view is that a heavy or over-grown crop of potatoes, 
in any soil or situation, will always yield bad seed potatoes ; 
and that over-cultivation is the sole or chief cause of the de- 
generacy of the plant ; and all my experience completely 
confirms me in this position. 

I come now, says this writer, to the cure, or remedy of 
the disease, or the best means of procuring and raising good 
seed. I would recommend to select the best varieties, and 
raise from the apple ; but, in the mean time, to have the 
best and soundest seed for present planting, — always, of 
course, avoiding the produce of a great crop, grown in any 
situation or soil. The land intended for seed should be 
ploughed deep in the autumn. The drills to be thirty inches 
wide, and manured moderately, with a mixture of earth, and 
if earth has not been previously mixed with the manure, a little 
may be drawn into the drills above the manure, and before 
planting the seed. The ground intended for seed should be 
planted with whole potatoes, and about fourteen inches apart, 



82 The Potatoe Plague. 

or the potatoe cut into two pieces, and planted at ten inches, 
(loth may be tried ;) the phmts to be placed near the sur- 
face, and never liighlj^ earthed up by the plough, as it is nat- 
ural for the tubers of the plant to run upwards, and the more 
of them that may be exposed to the sun and air in ripening, 
will make so much better seed. They should be taken up 
rather green and unripe than otherwise, but approaching to a 
ripe state. They should be placed in pits, (in an airy situ- 
ation,) of about two and a half feet at bpttom ; the pits maybe 
made of tolerable length. They should have first a little 
earth thrown over them — say, half an inch — and then a 
good covering of straw, finishing with a few inches deep of 
earth, as it is the sti-aw which will defend them from frost, 
and a few straw funnels at a short distance is all that is 
necessary. 

In stating the cause of the potatoe rot, a correspondent of 
the IMaine Farmer, E. G. Buxton, states an experiment 
which he made in gi'owing some potatoes in the cellar, in a 
dai'k place, and they w'ere affected with rot, like those raised 
in the field. From this he infers that the disease is not 
caused by rust, heat, cutting the seed, &c., but that the cause 
is in the potatoe. Some person, commenting on this, at- 
tributes the cause to disease in the previous ci'op, which was 
not perceptible, and was transmitted to the new produce. 

Several pamphlets on this subject have been published in 
Great Britain and France, the contents of which, and the 
views entertained by their compilers with regard to the causes 
and remedies for the malady, I shall now briefly state. 

In the Comptes rendus,* M. Payen states the result of his 
chemical investigations. He finds what he calls the dry 
matter, that is to say, all except the water, diminished in 
quantity to the extent of twelve per cent. The diseased part 

* Comptes rendus Hebdomadaires, &c., Nos. 13 to 16. Paris, 1815. 



The Potatoe Plague. 83 

is twice as heavy as the hcaltliy, which he attributes to the 
presence of a parasite. The loss of starch amounts to twenty 
per cent. There is present an azotized matter, having the 
same composition as fungi. All the chemical phenomena 
point to the action of such parasites, and not to spontaneous 
fermentation. Messrs. Girardin and Bidard, on the other 
hand, deny the presence of parasites. They find no other 
indication of their presence than what occurs in all cases of 
fermentation. They regard the disease as the result of sim- 
ple fermentation, induced by the unfavorable season. They 
recommended perfectly rotten potatoes to be crushed in tubs, 
to be thoroughly washed, by which means the foul odor is 
removed, and then, after draining, to be pressed into cakes, 
which may be dried in ovens after the bread is withdrawn, 
and given to cattle. M. Durand attributes the disease to 
atmospheric causes, favored by local circumstances. He 
knew it in former years, when potatoes were grown in damp 
places. He denies the statement that tlie stems were always 
affected before the tubers, and he states that dryness and 
darkness are certain safeguards for the crop. Three hundred 
Hectolities have been thus preserved for a month without 
change, and yet they had not been very carefully sorted. M. 
Gerard adverts to the admitted fact that the disease attacked 
the potatoes between the 10th and loth of August. • He is 
opposed to the idea that animal or vegetable parasitism is 
connected with it as a cause, and he ascribes the disease to the 
presence of a brown matter " which seems to glue the starch 
grains together, and to prevent their separation." He at- 
tributes its presence to unfavorable atmospheric causes, which 
caused the nutritive fluids to stagnate, and thus produced an 
alteration which ended in decay. 

A Mr. Spooner has published a pamphlet which is chiefljr 
addressed to the question of converting potatoes into starchy 



84 The Potatoe Plague. 

He ascribes the disease to frost, which, however, did *' not act 
directly on the tuber ; but indirectly through the leaves." 

Mr. Phillips has instituted a careful investigation of all the 
facts connected with the disease, and has collected some use- 
ful information. He is unable to find fungi, and ascribes the 
evil to too much moisture, the effect of long continued rains, 
which "stimulated the plant beyond its ability, and then 
overpowered it. The plant formed tnore pendulums, {sic) 
and tubers, than it could support, which being left to them- 
selves, putrefied," &c. Near the end of this pamphlet is a 
statement, that if the potatoe fields had been divided by 
trenches into compartments, the author has no doubt that the 
present disease would have been warded off. Mr. Phillips 
does not seem to be aware that what are called lazybeds in 
Ireland, are made exactly upon his plan, and, unfortunately, 
they are very far from having proved any security against 
the disease. The fact, moreover, is, that the best drained 
land has been as much, or more attacked, than the worst. 

Mr. Buckman regards fungi analogous to that which pro- 
duces smut in barley, as concerned in the evU. He finds 
theix seeds, (spores) sticking abundantly to the sides of the 
cells, and calls the species Uredo tuberosum. He does not, 
however, regard the Uredo as the basis and origin of the 
evil ; he looks upon it as a mere effect attributable to the 
peculiar state of a late season. As- remedies, he advocates a 
solution of chloride of lime, or chlorine gas ; but he does not 
seem to have any personal experience of their advantage. 
He also mentions the following plan, adopted by Mr. Sclater, 
a large potatoe grower of Exeter, as effectually stopping the 
further ravages of the disease. Soak the tubers for an hour 
in a weak solution of chloride of lime. Then dry well and 
soak for another hour in a solution of three pounds common 
soda in seventy-five quarts of water. Finally, dry them 
well, and store them in a dry place. We are persuaded that 



The Potatoe Plague. 85 

these plans, which have been so much advocated, all resolve 
themselves into one and only one process, which is, main- 
taining dryness. 

The official circular of the Poor Law Commissioners, con- 
tains an extract from an official paper published in the United 
States, on the potatoe disease in 1843. It appears from this 
document that the evil was ascribed to heavy rains and early 
snows. 

An able wi-iter in the Gardener's Chronicle, G. S. Mac- 
kenzie, Bart., says : " I formerly suggested that an insect 
had caused the disease of the potatoe. There now seems to 
be some reason for believing that it has been injured by 
various causes, and that there is more than one disease at 
work. While examining a number of diseased tubers, in one 
(and one only) I found two small maggots luxuriating in the 
rotten matter. On mentioning this circumstance, I found 
that some other persons had observed the same thing. In 
many potatoes I noticed round holes and cavities connected 
with them, in which larvae had, no doubt, fed. But there 
was no appearance of disease, the wounds having dried up 
In many cases the substance of the potatoe had been con- 
verted into matter of a corky consistence ; in the greatest 
number the substance was a mass of wet rottenness. 

I now give the opinion of Professor Liebig, published 
November 5. He says, " The researches I have undertaken 
upon the sound and diseased potatoes of the present year, have 
disclosed to me the remarkable fact, that they contain, in the 
sap, a considerable quantity of vegetable casein (cheese) pre- 
cipitable by acids. This constituent I did not observe in my 
previous researches. It would then appear that from the 
influence of the weather, or generally speaking, from atmos- 
pheric causes, a part of the vegetable albumen which prevails 
in the potatoe, has become converted into vegetable casein. 
The great instability of this last substance is well known ; 
8 



86 The Potatoe Plagm, 

hence the facility with which the potatoe containing it under- 
goes putrefaction. Any injury to health from the use of 
these potatoes is out of the question, and nowhere in Ger- 
many has such an effect been observed. It may be of some 
use to call attention to the fact that diseased potatoes may 
easily and at little expense, be preserved for a length of 
time, and afterwards employed in various ways, by cutting 
them into slices about one quarter of an inch thick, and im- 
mersing them in water containing two to three per cent, of 
sulphuric acid. After twenty-four or thirty-six hours the 
liquor may be drawn off, and all remains of it washed away 
by steeping in successive portions of fresh water. Treated 
in this manner the potatoes are easily dried. The pieces are 
white and of little weight, and can be ground to flour and 
baked into bread along with the flour of wheat. I think it 
probable that the diseased potatoes, after being sliced and kept 
for some time in contact with weak sulphuric acid, so as to 
be penetrated by the acid, may be preserved in that state in 
pits. 

An advocate of the theory that the disease is caused by 
fungus, gives the following statement: — "That this disease 
is occasioned by a fungus in the leaf, I have no doubt, and 
Buch I believe is the public opinion in general. I am equally 
well assured that the gangrene or mortification is a mere con- 
sequence of the fungus. If a certain predisposition in the 
potatoe plant, occasioned by an advanced state of the ele- 
ments themselves, were alone necessary to give unbounded 
scope to this fungus, how, I would ask, has it happened, that 
this strange condition of atmosphere has never occurred be- 
fore, since the introduction of the potatoe from South Ameri- 
ca — now, I believe, nearly two hundred years ? Or, shall it 
be said that the disease is indeed new to Europe ? On look- 
ing over the weather registries for the month of August, I 
find that S. W., "W., and N. "W. winds prevailed through 



The Potatoe Plague. 87 

the whole month ; and even extended into September, and 
this is, I should conceive, an extraordinary direction in re- 
gard to their continuity. Everybody has seen, according to 
the old phrase, " motes dancing in the sunbeams." Now, as 
to the sporules of various fungi, why may it not be possible 
for them to possess so little specific gravity as to be lighter 
than their own volume of air — to ascend thereby in common 
with mists — to be incorporated with clouds • — to traverse 
thousands of miles in a few days, and to descend as propa- 
gandists wherever the winds choose to cai'ry them, or for 
•condensation to take place ? In conclusion I beg to say that 
I would not attempt to repudiate the idea of predisposition 
altogether, but merely direct the attention of the public to 
facts probably equally important 

Whatever may be the origin of the fungus, says another 
'Writer, depend upon it, perseverance must be resorted to in 
-order to get rid of it ; if tubers are planted with a particle 6f 
it on them, and the season proves again congenial for its 
spread, it will again destroy the crop. As a proof of this I 
planted a few infected potatoes, without putting into practice 
the precaution I have used with my other potatoes, and the 
■consequence is that the obnoxious pest made its appearance 
In its usual blotchings, while a quantity of others, which I 
lad stored in perfectly dry charred articles, are growing 
away healthily ; a quantity with foliage and stalks above a 
foot in height, clear from spot or blemish, looks at present as 
well as could be wished. Depend upon it, the recommenda- 
tion to shake lime about the tubers previous to planting, is 
most essential to prevent the further spread of the fungi, let 
the latter originate in whatever form they may, and should 
be immediately put into practice. Supposing every tuber 
intended for next season's production to be individually dredg- 
ed with lime, an active boy would dredge a large quantity in 
a. day ; the expense would be trifling, either for material or 



88 The Potatoe Plague. 

labor ; for lime can be easily procured in any quarter ; for 
dredging, a box with holes is all that is required. 

It appears to me, remarks another writer, that the disease 
primarily attacks the stem, and I think the view I take of 
the subject holds good in some cases, if not all. I maintain 
that it is a disease of the fluids ; the descending sap becomes 
poisoned by the generation of unwholesome gasses in the 
Btem ; from the excessive moisture prevalent through this sea- 
son, the proper exhalation of the plant has not been carried 
on ; thus we find that the stem undergoes decomposition, 
instead of gradual decay, and this deteriorates the descending 
sap, which, passing to the root, poisons, as it were, the tubera. 
My own potatoes, which were planted on new ground, on a 
very steep slope, are not in the least affected. Where they 
were grown on higher ground, the tops died early, and the 
tubers are as healthy as possible. Before the last rain I dug 
about a rood — both from the lower and the higher ground, 
and all were equally sound. A few rows remained, which I 
was prevented by the rain from digging up ; these I have 
since gathered, and they have shown symptoms of disease j 
the lops were fine, but after the rain they were all matted 
together. During their growth I never saw tops have a 
more luxuriant appearance, clear and fresh, with nothing like 
specks on the leaves or stems. Another thing which leads 
me to consider the sap as poisoned, is the great rapidity with 
which the tubers decay. They appear healthy to all out- 
ward appearance ; still, in many cases, if they are kept sev- 
eral days before they are stored away, the specks are mani- 
fest ; first, of a dingy hue, then darker colored, and afterwards 
becoming soft and rotten. If this really is the case, I do not 
see of what use any of the methods as yet pi'oposed can be. 
Had the leaves or stems of my potatoes showed any signs of 
specks, I would have pulled the stems out of the ground, leav- 
ing the tubers a while before I dug them up ; this would have 



The Potatoe Plague. 89 

prevented any bad effect from a deteriorated sap. A proof 
might be obtained by comparing the analysis of an unsound 
potatoe with that of a sound one. 

Mr. J. E. Teschemacher, who favors the theory of fungus, 
thus writes to the editor of the New England Farmer : 

I hear, every day, of instances of parcels stored in cellars, 
apparently sound when put in, which are now totally worth- 
less. Depend upon it, unless some remedy be found, it will 
hardly be worth while to plant potatoes another year. 

In order that I may not be misunderstood, I will now suc- 
cinctly state my opinions on this subject. 

I think that salt, lime, and several compounds, will destroy 
the disease. I prefer salt, because, when mixed in the soil, 
it may get into the juices, and circulate through the whole 
plant. Lime, or lime water, would do the same to a certain 
extent, but it is far less soluble than salt. 

The fungus I have seen, vegetates upon and thickens the 
sides of the cells of which the potatoe is composed, which 
cells contain the grains of starch. The starch is not injured 
until the sides of the cells, rotted by the fungus, burst — the 
worms or maggots breed, and the whole finally becomes a 
mass of putridity, with an offensive, fungus-like smell. 

I saw in your last week's paper, several cases of the dis- 
ease occurring where sea-weed had been used, and also near 
the sea-shore. These cases would seem to militate against 
the idea of salt being a cure. But they are very far from 
convincing me, for the following reasons : The salt atmos- 
phere near the sea, may not have contained one-tenth enough 
salt to destroy the rot, or the prevailing winds there may not 
have spread the spray in sufficient quantity. And with re- 
spect to sea-weed, in a late London journal, there are analy- 
ses of four different kinds of sea-weed, performed by burning 
the weed and analyzing the ashes. 
8* 



90 The Potatoe Plague, 











Ashes. 


Salt. 


Laminaria saccharina 


gave 


to 100 lbs. 


about 10 lb. 


3 1b. 


Fucus vesiculosus 


a 


100 " 


u 


201" 


61 « 


Fucus serratus 


« 


100 " 


il 


26 « 


10 « 


Fucus crispus, or 












Chondria crispa 


« 


100 « 


ii 


25|« 


4|" 



They varied also considerably in the other ingredients. 
Now, when this great difference exists in the quantity of salt 
in different sea-weeds just taken from the sea," and when it is 
considered that the sea-weed is often made into a compost, 
turned over and exposed to all kinds of weather, by which 
salt may be washed out, it must be obvious that no true 
judgment can be formed of its etfects on the potatoe disease, 
unless the kind of sea-weed, and all the attendant circum- 
stances, be taken into account. The spores of the fungus, in 
the cases alluded to, might have been, and most probably 
were, so numerous, that the salt thus adventitiously obtained, 
was not sufficient to destroy them. 

In a paper transmitted to the N. Y. State Agricultural 
Society, (alluded to in a former communication,) I recom- 
mended an analysis of sound potatoes, and a parallel one of 
those just contanrinated by the rot ; and this to be done, not 
in the usual way, by reducing to ashes, but by expressing the 
juices and analyzing them. This Avould show whether there 
was any difference in the ingredients that might be consider- 
ed as offering favorable circumstances for fungus vegetation. 
The analysis by incineration should also be tried. For, if 
Bait destroys the fungus, as my own eyes as well as those of 
other's have seen, it is a fair presumption that if we can get a 
solution of salt into the juices of the plant, in any shape, that 
it will be unfavorable to the vegetation of the spores. 

Until I see a number of experiments fairly tried with salt, 
lime, &c., and they have failed, I shall not be persuaded that 
the views I have taken of these as remedies for the potatoe 



Hie Potatoe Plague. 91 

evil, are erroneous, — and should they prove of no value, 
I am quite ready to give them up and try arjain. 

A. B. Allen, Editor of the American Agriculturalist thus 
sums up, in a few words, the whole subject. The disease is 
probably a fungus. The best remedies are salt, lime and 
charcoal. We recommend procuring new seedlings, and be 
very careful not to let them get mixed with old ones.- Plant 
next spring Avithout other manuces than plaster, salt, lime, 
charcoal or ashes. A good sod, with the addition of the 
other materials, will be sufficiently rich to raise a large crop ; 
and, depend upon it, if the seed be of a good variety, and it 
escapes the rot, the crop will be sweet, mealy, and highly 
nutritious — the best for animals as well as for man. 

As the disease is more generally attributed to the attacks 
of fungi than to any other cause, a few remarks on the cause 
of fungi, will not be inappropriate to this inquiry, and I give 
them place here. A writer in the Farmers' Cabinet says — 
,, Close observation will show, tliat all plants of the fungi 
tribe grow where there is a deficiency of alkalies. We never 
see mushrooms, toadstools, or any thing of the kind, grow on 
or near a heap of ashes or lime. But we almost invaribly 
see them growing on or near a pile of stable dung, or any 
thing yielding a large proportion of carbonic acid. The cause 
of this is easily demonstrated by chemistry. A chemical 
analysis of jilants of the fungi tribe, will show that they con- 
tain an extremely small proportion of alkali, far smaller than 
any other class of vegetables. The fact is of the highest im- 
portance to farmers ; by its aid they can always tell when 
their soils need alkaline substances to make them more pro- 
ductive, without going to the trouble and expense of a chemi- 
cal analysis of the soil for that purpose. Upon whatever 
spot of ground the fungi make their appearance, there is a 
want of alkali, and no time should be lost in supplying it, if 
we would raise profitable crojis ; for such crops as wheat, 



92 The Potatoe Plagne. 

corn, oats, haj, potatoes, &c., will not grow well there, evett 
if they are supplied with the very best stable manure. They 
need ashes, liine, «fcc., in such places, and they cannot do with- 
out them. 

The fungi being composed principally of carbon, oxygen, 
and hydrogen, feed upon carbonic acid and water chiefly, and 
consequently if lime or potash be added to the soil where 
they grow, and the carbonic acid be thereby changed into a 
salt, the fungi have nothing to feed upon, and therefore die, 
for they cannot feed upon a salt. 

When the potatoe crop has been furnished with sufficient 
alkali, particularly potash, and the carbonic acid in it is in 
the form of a carbonate, the fungi have nothing to feed on, 
and do not attack the potatoe. On the other hand, when 
there is not sufficient alkali given to the potatoe crop to cause 
the carbonic acid to form a salt by union with such alkali, 
then the carbonic acid in the potatoe is in its own form of 
carbonic acid, and as such the sickly root offers the proper* 
food to the fungi, and it avails itself of it ; unfortunately for 
doing so, it brings down upon itself the charge of being the 
cause of the potatoe disease.* 

The same is the case with other plants. If they lack alkali 
to form a salt in connection with the carbonic acid they re- 
ceive, the superabundant carbonic acid will give nutrition to 
the seeds of fungi, and they will sprout and grow. We see 
this effect produced in wheat in the case of mildew, rust, or 
blight, and also smut in the same plant, the ergit in rye, the 
" devil's snuff-box " in corn, the mildew in oats, buckwheat 



*Soine of the practical chemists of this city, with their balances, tests, &c., 
might do the agricultural community a great service in connection with 
this matter, by analyzing sound potatoes, and giving their constituents ; 
and then analyzing the rotten potatoes, and giving their constituents also. 
The public might then compare them, and see what was wanted, and sup- 
ply it. 



The Potatoe Plague. 93 

and the grasses, and the mossy growth on the bark of fruit 
and other trees. This is demonstrated by the fact, that if 
we apply strong alkalies in sufficient quantities to any of these 
plants, before they are attacked by the fungi, they will not he 
attacked; and if we supply them after they are attacked, 
they will soon he freed from them. It is to this purpose that 
our most successful farmers and fruit raisers apply salt and 
lime to protect wheat from rust, mildew or blight, and smut, 
and put ashes and lime upon corn to protect it from the 
"snuff-box," and sow ashes on potatoes to save them from 
the rot, and wash fruit trees with whale oil, soap or other 
alkaline substances, to restore them to health. These alka- 
line substances, too, by uniting with the carbonic acid, pre- 
vent the commencement of decay. This commencement in 
all carboniferous substances, is called, in chemistry, the sac- 
charine fermentation, the product of which is a sweet sub^ 
stance, which gives food to flies, bugs, &c., and which flieS 
and bugs are also charged by other scientific gentlemen, with 
' being the cause of the potatoe rot, and other diseases of 
plants. The Hessian fly, in my opinion, finds nothing suited 
to its palate in a healthy stalk of wheat, or one that has 
enough alkali, and therefore does not attack it ; but in a sickly 
plant, or one with a deficiency of alkali, she finds the sweet sub- 
stance upon which she feeds, and there lays her eggs ; which 
eggs, in the course of time, hatch and produce worms, and if 
the plant is in such a condition as to furnish food for these 
worms, they will still remain there ; but a healthy plant will 
not furnish that food, — the same in regard to the wheat 
worm, muck worm, and all other worms that attack plants. 
I am led to this conclusion by numerous observations and 
some experiments. I have found that where there was a 
proper quantity of alkaline substances, plants were not injur- 
ed by worms, bugs, or flies, in any other way than by being 
eaten up by them. And, indeed, they are not so apt to be 



§4 The Potatoe Plague. 

eaten when they have a sufficiency of alkalies, for by their 
aid they form carbonate of lime, phosphate of lime, silicate of 
potash, &c., and make their stalks and leaves so hard and 
strong as to be almost impenetrable to the attacks of many 
insects that infest them. And their juices are so insipid that 
they are not so well relished by such insects. 



CHAPTER IIL 

Causes of the Disease, and Remedies Stated. 

I HAVE now given, as fully as my limits would permit, the 
most important particulars concerning the history, cultivation, 
and diseases of the potatoe. I have given the various theo- 
ries that are entertained respecting the prevailing disease, 
and come now to state what I consider to be the causes of the 
malady that threatens a total destruction of the potatoe crop 
of the world, and the appropriate and simple remedies that 
will be found efficacious in staying its further progress in the 
crop of 1846, and preventing it for future time. 

The prevailing theories on the subject may be recapitulat- 
ed as follows : — 

1. Atmospheric influences. 

2. Effects of manure. 

3. Wet weather. 

4. Dry weather. 

5. Excessive heat and cold. 

6. Deterioration of the plant. 

7. Parasitical influences. 

8. Attack of the mould. 

9. Over cultivation. 
10. Over ripening. 

It must be evident even to the most superficial observer, 
that a cause must be found that is universal in its effects, be- 
cause the disease has spread throughout the world, regardless 



96 The Potatoe Plague. 

of climate, soils or manures ; warm or cold latitudes ; in hot, 
dry, wet, and cold seasons ; under every possible feature of 
cultivation, and in every condition of the crop, as managed by 
all sorts of farmers, throughout the whole of this country and 
all the countries of Europe. These facts remembered we 
must discard the idea that atmospheric influences would pro- 
duce the disease ; manures and soils could not produce it ; 
excessive heat or cold could not affect the crop so universally. 
The disease has been steadily increasing for years in defiance 
of all the conditions that these various theories would estab- 
lish as governing the malady. They are partial in their 
operation, and must, therefore, be rejected as insufficient. 
The cause of rot, says an intelligent writer, cannot be in the 
soil, since we find healthy and diseased potatoes growing be- 
side each other ; that is to say, on soils of the same constitu- 
tion we sometimes find the rot in alternate plants, or in whole 
rows. It cannot be attributed to the atmosphere, as all plants 
and roots are equally surrounded by it ; nor can the cause be 
in the manure, as all the tubers receive the same kind, and 
nearly the same quantity. It must, therefore, be attributed 
to the potatoe itself. 

"We have, then, to consider the most popular theory, which 
ascribes the disease to the influence of the growth of fungi. 
This position is the one taken by the principal vegetable 
physiologists of Great Britain and this country, and most of 
the directions published in the agricultural papers are made 
with reference to this fact. That this is not the true cause 
of the disease, is, I think, made sufficiently clear by the con- 
cluding paragraphs of the last chapter. That evidences of 
the appearance of fungi have been discovered, and are dis- 
coverable in all diseased potatoes, I do not deny, but I assert 
that they are a consequence of disease and not the cause. 
Liebig says in his Chemistry of Agriculture — " The micro- 
scopical examination of vegetable and animal matter, in the 



The Potatoe Plague. 97 

act of fermentation or putrefaction, has lately given rise to 
the opinion that these actions themselves, and the changes 
suffered by the bodies subjected to them, are produced in 
consequence of the developemcnt of fungi, or of microscopical 
animals, the germs, or eggs of which are supposed to be dif- 
fused every where, in a manner inappreciable to our senses ; 
they are supposed to be developed when they meet with a 
medium fitted to give them nourishment. 

" It is certain that sponges and fungi, growing in places 
from which light is excluded, follow laws of nutrition differ- 
ent from those governing green plants ; and it cannot be 
doubted that their nourishment is derived from putrefying 
bodies, or from the products of their putrefaction, which pass 
directly into tliis kind of plants, and obtain an organized 
form by the vital powers residing Avithin them.^ During their 
growth they constantly*€mit carbonic acid, increasing in 
weight at the same time, while all other plants, under similar 
circumstances, would decrease in weight. Hence it is possi- 
ble, and indeed probable, that fungi may have the power of 
growing in fermenting and putrefying substances, in as far as 
the products arising from the putrefaction are adapted for 
their noucishment." 

The truth with regard to the appearance of fungi in pota- 
toes is, then, simply this : — The disease exists in the potatoe ; 
putrefaction takes place, and these germs or eggs which Liebig 
supposes to be every where, find in the diseased potatoe their 
proper nourishment, and hence they begin to grow. If, as 
is asserted, the germs of fungus are diffused every where, 
why do they not affect all other crops, in a similar manner ? 
Simply because other crops are not diseased. But over-ripe 
vegetables, fruit, and decaying or putrefying vegetable sub- 
stances are affected in a similar degree, because tliey ar& 
putrefying: they are not putrefying because of the fungus. 

But, admitting for a moment that the presence o^ fungi is 
9 



98 The Potatoe Plague. 

the cause of rot, a certain and immediate remedy is at hand ; 
for, " when the potatoe crop has been furnished with sufficient 
alkali, the fungi have nothing to feed on, and do not attack 
the potatoe ; " and further, " if we applj strong alkalies in 
sufficient quantities to any plants liable to attack from mil- 
dew, rust, blight, &c., (which are various developements of 
fungi,) before they are attacked, they will not he attacked, 
and if we supply them after they are attacked, they tvill soon 
be freed from them." Now alkalies have been applied in 
considerable quantities to potatoes, and while growing they 
have not been attacked by the rot, but after gathei'ing and 
harvesting disease has appeared and destroyed them, show- 
ing conclusively that fungi is not the cause, but that a deeper 
one must be sought and a more radical remedy applied. 

What, then, are the causes of this extensive evil ? I state 
them thus : — ^ 

Over Ripening, 
Over Cultivation, 
Deterioration of Seed. 
To which might be added, 

Carelessness in Selecting Seed. 

In this last particular great losses have been sustained by 
farmers, not only in the potatoe crop, but in every crop that 
is cultivated. And this disaster to potatoes may, as its cause 
is discovered, eventually prove a blessing, by showing the 
prime importance of selecting good seed. It is surprising 
that farmers will obey almost every law that must be observ- 
ed in good cultivation, and yet neglect to supply themselves 
with seed, properly saved and cured. It admits of de- 
monstration that much of the losses arising yearly in the 
various crops of our agriculture, are traceable directly to the 
want of good and pure seed. Of what use, I would ask, is 
thorough cultivation, plowing, hoeing, pulverizing and man- 
uring, if the grand object for which all this labor is expended 



The Potatoe Plague. 99 

is not promoted ? and how can it be accomplished without 
good seed ? Cultivators have practised as though that was 
a matter of no importance, and jet, it would seem, every 
year's experience would teach them better ; for, do they not 
see, every season, how much quicker sales and better prices 
farmers receive for good products than for those which are 
inferior ? and yet they say, it is their neighbors' luck, when 
it is clearly the result of judicious foresight. 

A false economy prevails on this subject. Many farmers 
look for seeds of the lowest price. This is wrong. The best 
and purest seeds are always the cheapest, and in exercising a 
proper economy, they ought to select seeds that are known to 
be pure, healthy and strong, withoirt regard to the price, pro- 
vided it is within reasonable limits. 

There is a great advantage in pursuing the right course in 
regard to this matter. Aa increased product of one half bushel 
on an acre in the average yield of corn, wheat, rye, oats, barley, 
&c., will make in the aggregate a vast amount ; and yet by using 
seeds that are carefully selected for their purity, healthiness 
and strength, how much more than an average increase of 
one half bushel per acre can be realized ? In some cases 
from one to ten bushels, and even a greater increase can be 
obtained by attending to the selection of seeds. 

It will be found on inquiry that those farmers who are the 
most successful in prmlucing large crops, spare neither time, 
labor nor expense, in selecting their seed. Difference of soil, 
situation, manures, and previous condition of the land, are to 
be considered; but it will appear that the quality of seed 
sown has influenced the quantity of the crop as much, if not 
more, than any other circumstance. 

But it is not the increased quantity of a crop that is the 
only advantage gained in using selected seed. Another ad- 
vantage is, the superior quality of the crop, and this alone, 
allowing that the average yield was the same in using good 



100 The Potatoe Plague. 

and had seed, is a sufficient inducement to be very particular 
in the selection. It has not escaped the observation of the 
most careless purchaser of agricultural produce, or the expe- 
rience of producers, that there is a vast difference in the 
market value of crops of the same variety. Whence does 
this difference arise ? One crop is raised on a congenial soil, 
with congenial food, and with better cultivation than another 
had, but after all, it will be found that the quality of seed 
used, influenced the value of the crop as much as any other 
consideration. Take the article of potatoes. Some varieties 
sell, in ordinary seasons, at retail, in Boston Market, for one 
dollar per bushel, while the main stock is offered at thirty to 
forty cents per bushel. The first are mealy, almost every 
potatoe good, and nearly equal to wheat bread, while the 
others are close, soggy, cloggy, half-decayed things. 

" Potatoes, which not fit to dig, 
Would turn the stomach of a pig-" 

Which are most profitable for fiirraers and consumers ? What 
is observed of potatoes is equally true of every other kind of 
marketable produce. 

Perhaps in no part of the duties of the farmer has there 
been so much neglect as in selecting and saving potatoes for 
seed. Any potatoes have been considered good enough for 
that purpose, and any mode of preserving or keeping them 
has been adopted. Now, to this one fact, we trace a portion 
of the evil that has visited us in the potatoe crop. A greater 
mistake never was committed. To build a house with un- 
burnt bricks were wisdom compared with it. 

By improper management in taking up the potatoe, tubers 
of the finest quality are easily spoiled ; and, on the contrary, 
by judicious treatment, even such as are watery may be con- 
siderably improved. It is of the highest consequence that light 
as well as frost should be guarded against ; for light renders the 



The Potatoe Plague. 101 

tubers unwholesome, and that, in proportion to its intcnsitj 
and the length of time the tubers are exposed to its influence. 

The stems, and in fact all parts of the potatoe plant above 
ground, are more or less poisonous. Tubei'S are occasionally 
formed along the stem, but they are, as we all know, green 
and bad. This is entirely owing to their exposure to light ; 
forbad the stems been laid in the earth, so as to have covered 
such stem-tubers from the commencement of their growth, 
they would have been just as good as tubers of the under- 
ground formation. Potatoes, even in their dirty state, as 
taken up, will be considerably altered in color, both exter- 
nally and internally, and proportionahly impaired in quality, 
by a few days' exposure to light, in clear weather, although 
they may not be exposed to the sun's direct rays ; but the 
effect must be greater when the surface is washed and de- 
prived of the partial shade afforded by the particles of soil. 

The time was when potatoes were in many instances 
spread out in the sun, in order to dry them before storing in 
the earth. No practice could be worse, for the reasons above 
stated ; and, moreover, the object in view, that of rendering 
them ultimately drier and better in quality, was not attained. 
On the contrary, although deprived of a portion of their mois- 
ture in the first instance, yet this only left room for the 
absorption of moisture contaminated with gasses, generated in 
the place where they were stored. 

From this I would have it inferred that potatoes should 
never be cleansed or washed before they are stored ; they 
should be dried with the dirt remaining upon them, as they 
were taken from the ground, but with the least possible ex- 
posure to light. Potatoes for seed may remain so until it is 
time to plant them ; those intended for cooking may be taken 
out and dried several days before they are wanted for use. A 
writer in the Revue Horticole, a French agricultural publi- 
cation, is aware of this fact. He says : " In unfavorable 
9* 



102 The Potatoe Plague. 

seasons potatoes are always found to be watery and without 
flavor, although cooked with the greatest care. In tliis case 
the mode of effecting an amehoration is easy ; it consists in 
j)lacing them near a stove or oven, for about a week pre- 
viously to their being used ; at the end of that time they will 
be found mealy and of good flavor." Objects of vast impor- 
tance are sometimes attained by very simple means ; and 
that to which the foregoing remarks apply, is by no means 
underserving consideration. At a meeting of farmers in 
Scotland, they gave clearly the results of their varied experi- 
ence, and one fact all the speakers seemed to agree in, which 
was, that potatoes left in the ground, where they grew, al- 
ways produced a healthy crop. Many farmers confirm this. 
One farmer says he has followed this same plan forty years 
with uniform success ; the potatoes were always fi-esh and 
well tasted, and as seed, they never failed. Here is the 
simplest of all plans for saving seed, for a little extra earth , 
will secure them from frost. It is stated by some that extra 
earth in saving potatoes is unnecessary. If they are in a 
dry soil, and completely covered by it, they will not be in- 
jured by the most severe frost — that is, supposing they are 
to remain in the soil until they are completely thawed again. 
Hundreds of potatoes are left in the ground all the winter, 
many of them not more than an inch deep, and yet when 
they are turned up in the spring, they are as sound as if they 
had been kept in a cellar. 

It has been thought that the sprouting of potatoes in cel- 
lars must have some effect on the healthy developement -of 
the future plant, and it would seern that there is some reason 
for this idea, " as in the town of Ballina (Ireland) where the 
rot has never ajJj^eared, I have been told that all farmers, 
from the richest to the poorest, take especial care to select 
those potatoes which have never sprouted in cellars, and 
to plant tlrem as quick as possible. It is said, however, that 



The Potatoe Plague. 103 

the crops there are beginning to fail, owing to the practice of 
planting year after year on the same soil. They do not rot 
but get smaller in size. An alkali of a very deleterious 
nature {Solaniri) is found in the sprouts of potatoes which 
shoot in cellars, while not a trace of it is found in sprouts 
grown in soil. How far this tends to injure the tuber is not 
ascertained, but it is highly probable that such a tendency is 
induced. It is not probable that the degeneration of the 
tuber in one year immediately induced rot, — by neglect, 
transformations have been going on for years, which have 
ultimately led to it. Experiments might easily be instituted 
to show how far shoots produced in cellars affect the crop, 
and it is cei'tainly worth ascertaining. 

Over-Cultivation. What has been said on this sub- 
ject in the foregoing pages should be re-perused with care 
and especial attention, as this is one of the main causes that 
has produced the great evil. It may be asked, indeed it will 
be asked, " If rot arises from this, and the other causes you 
have named, why has not the evil appeared before, and why 
is it so universal now ? " I answer, that while the crop was 
produced by manures that are not highly stimulating, on land 
that did not contain a superabundance of nutritive matter, 
and while the quantity produced per acre was moderate, the 
disease was not developed ; that in the interior, away from 
cities and large towns, there was no trouble with the crop for 
a great number of years ; that in the immediate vicinity of 
cities wdiere manure is abundant, and the land highlj'^ fed, the 
disease made its appearance in a very early stage of the cul- 
tivation of the crop, and its progress w'as only stayed by 
yearly importations of seed from back countries ; that the 
disease has been steadily increasing for years, and it is not 
a new disease, but has progressively increased wherever the 
crop is cultivated ; that the manner of saving and preparing 
seed, growing crops, manuring and cultivation is, and has 



104 The Potatoe Plague. 

been, very nearly the same, in all the countries where the 
potatoe is grown, and, consequently, all the causes which pro- 
duce the disease, have been simultaneously in operation, 
everywhere. That the disease is not an epidemic, we know, 
because sound and unsound potatoes are grown upon the 
same field. I say that the causes of the disease lie where I 
have placed them, because in almost every instance where 
the treatment of the crop has been based upon this theory, 
there has been no rot. There are, of course, exceptions to all 
general rules, and exceptions may be named to this, but the 
great fact remains true, and it will be a demonstrated truth 
next year, by all who are careful in selecting land and pre- 
paring their seed potatoes. 

Now 1 lay it down as an incontrovertible fact that potatoe 
sets from a highly cultivated field, and fi-om a large crop, are 
not proper for seed, and that sets from such a crop will in- 
evitably give a 'diseased product ; it may not be A'isible the 
first year, or the second ; but the tuber is diseased, and the 
disease will out. I do not say that farmers should not strive 
for large crops, but merely that sets should not be taken 
from them. I cannot precisely state the law governing this 
fact, but it has been remarked by Professor Morren that the 
potatoe is not a root — only a branch ; and if the Professor 
is correct, then an easy solution for it is at hand. The plant, 
by over-production, has exhausted its vital energies. And 
this would seem to be the true reason why sets from such a 
crop are not proper for seed. 

Over-Ripening. Another cause to which I ascribe the 
rot, is the planting of over-ripened sets. I believe it will not 
be contended for a moment that over-ripened sets have not 
generally been planted, neither will it be asserted that the 
produce from sets not over-ripened have been, to any general 
extent, affected by the disease. In some cases they have ; 
but, then, it will be traceable to pre-existing disease, arising 



IVie Potatoe Plague. 105 

from the same causes in previous years. There is no question 
that the vital energies of a plant, if excited beyond a given 
point, are injured in their organization, and rendered unfit 
for the purpcfces of reproduction. I speak now of those 
plants which-aie reproduced by cuttings, layers, and tuberous 
appendages growing from them. Florists who, by the nature 
of their business, are obliged to watch the nature of all plants 
propagated by these means, understand the operation of this 
principle, and the individuals they propagate from are gen- 
erally selected with greatest care. The rules which apply 
to other root crops, will not and cannot apply to potatoes, 
because other root crops are reproduced by seed, and cannot 
be produced by cuttings, sets, or tubers. The potatoe set is 
part of the plant ; it is forced from its parent stem to perform 
the unnatural office of perpetuating its kind. Now, this fact 
borne in mind, it will be seen that the causes which I have 
named as producing disease, are the most obvious, as well as 
the most natural ones, and it is the simplicity of the thing 
alone which has prevented the deeply learned and scientific 
from making the discovery before. They have midoubtedly 
made observations on these causes and understand fully the 
operation of them, but as they were simple and evident, have 
passed them by as of no immediate consequence. 

The same thing may be remarked with regard to progress 
in morals, religion, and any of the sciences. Professoi-s in 
these branches of knowledge, have not distingui'^hed them- 
selves, by any wonderful additions to their subject ; they only 
adopt, apply, and illustrate hiown truths. New discoveries 
they make not ; they are things unknown ; they search for 
them, indeed, but look for profound and mysterious laws, 
forgetting that all the truths in the arcana of nature, are so 
simple that a child can understand them. This rule of 
thought and action has prevented progress from the earliest 
ages to the present time, and a modern professor will be as 



106 The Potatoe Plague. 

likely to sneer at my simple theory and remedies as was 
Naaman, the Syrian, when told by the prophet to wash seven 
times in Jordan, and he should be healed. The proud offi- 
cial turned away in anger and scorn, but a serving girl fol- 
lowed after him, and asked, in the language of simple 
common sense, and according to the strict rules of analogy : 
"My lord! if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, 
wouldst thou not have done it ? " The multitude miscon- 
ceive the operations of nature : they are continually looking 
for great things, and let opportunities slip that would induct 
them into a more intimate knowledge of the ways of Provi- 
dence. Putting water upon fire is a simple remedy, but it 
is efficacious. " Cease to do evil ; learn to do well," is a 
simple remedy to amend a bad life and bad habits, but it is 
abundantly able to transform a spirit of darkness to assimila- 
tion with the purity of angels. It is by looking for simple 
causes that the greatest results are obtained. 

Deterioration of Seed. All the causes we have 
named would naturally tend to the deterioration of potatoe 
sets, and it is not at all sur^jrising that most of the seeds of 
varieties now in use, have become so weak and disorganized 
as to produce diseased tubers, and so furnish food for fungi, 
.and an excuse for ascribing the general decay to all the 
other causes that have been assigned. Mr. Knight, the first 
President of the London Horticultural Society, and one of 
the greatest men of his time, limited the duration of varieties 
in a state of perfection to from fourteen to twenty years, and 
remarked that the experience of most farmers Avould witness 
for him that no variety, then in cultivation, and esteemed a 
good sort, could be traced back more than twelve years. On 
the other hand, it has been stated, and individual experience 
has proved, that with care, varieties have preserved their 
original vigor for nearly half a century. This last is no doubt 
the truth with regard to varieties, if proper care has been 



The Potatoe Plague. 107 

observed in managing the seed or tubers from Ihem ; but the 
remark of Mr. Knight will hold generally correct in view of 
the very extensive and deplorable mismanagement that has 
prevailed in saving sets for replanting. 

Now, having stated the causes of the potatoe plague, rot, or 
taint, the remedies to be applied are easily understood and 
within the reach of all. Sets from this year's crop, that have 
escaped change, may be carefully selected, and though they 
may be affected by previous mismanagement, the disease 
will not prevail so extensively in the new crop as it did last 
year ; by cultivating expressly for seed, storing and saving 
them, as recommended in this book, another year will witness 
a great fallmg off in the disease, and, eventually it will dis- 
appear, as_ none but healthy sprouts being planted, disease 
cannot be propagated. 

On the subject of planting potatoes, the following remarks 
by Mx. T. Smith may be appropriately inserted in this place. 
" From the experience I have had in the cultivation of the 
potatoe, I have come to the conclusion that the taint, or dry 
rot, OAves its origin entirely to an injudicious method of plant- 
ing the seed ; * and after mature consideration, I have adopt- 
ed a system of planting, wdiich I have practised for twenty 
years, with such success as never once to have had an in- 
stance of dry rot among my potatoe crops during that time, 
although they were sometimes growing in direct contiguity to 
other potatoes, which, from being planted in a different man- 
ner, were laboring under the effects of disease. It shall now 
be my endeavor, in as simple and as concise a manner as 
possible, to lay this system before my readers, convinced that 



* Much difficulty has doubtless arisen from tliis source, but it is vain to 
ascribe the rot entirely to itt The suggestion is, however, worth attending 
to, as improvements in planting, as well as in selecting seeds, must be 
advantageous. 



108 The Potatoe Plague. 

they will find it in practice a most effectual remedy for the 
disease in question. The chief cause of this disease I conceive 
to be the prevalent error in planting the potatoe, of placing 
the seed in a quantity of dung laid in the middle of the drill. 
Any one who knows any thing of the qualities of dung, 
knows that it is of itself incapable of promoting vegetation, 
or sustaining vegetable life, until decomposed, and incorpo- 
rated with a portion of earthy soil, and it is not therefore to 
be wondered at that disease and failures in the potatoe crop 
are so prevalent. The wonder is, that while such a system 
of planting is persevered in, any of these crops should suc- 
ceed at all under such treatment ; and, indeed, this is only 
to be accounted for by the small quantity and inferior quality 
of the dung applied, which is generally found mixed with 
great quantities of half-rotten straw and other extraneous 
substances, and were it not that the fresh earth is laid imme- 
diately on the top of the dung after the seed is planted, the 
failure of crops would be to a much greater extent ; of this I 
have no doubt. The ground too, if in a very impoverished 
state, may, by speedily digesting and drying up the dung, 
prevent, to a great extent, a total failure of the crop, although 
the seed were planted thus injudiciously in the midst of the 
dung ; for it will be observed that in such ground the rot is 
not so destructive as in rich deep soils. The first and great 
point, therefore, in setting the potatoe, is to have the manure 
properly conmiingled with the soil before introducing the 
seed, the plan I adopt in planting, briefly as follows : In pre- 
paring a pai'cel of ground for the reception of the pota- 
toe seed, I proceed to have the manure spread regularly over 
the surface, and evenly dug in. I then either drill the ground, 
after the manner of gardeners in sowing peas, and plant the 
potatoes in the drill, or plant them with a dibble, without 
drilling, about two or three inches below the surface, the dib- 
ble being formed with a broad point, so as to insure the 



The Potatoc Plague. 109 

potatoe having no open space left beneath it, when dropped 
into the hole. For large fields which cannot well be dug or 
planted in this manner I would recommend that the ground 
be prepared and the dung spread exactly as for oats or barley. 
Then have the ground drilled, and in planting place the seed 
potatoe in the clear soil, on the back of the half drill, formed 
by the return of the plough, which half drill should be made 
larger than ordinary, to bring the seed as near to the centre 
of the drill as possible, so as to afford it every advantage of 
the fresh soil t» vegetate in. In this way, the fructifying 
earth, in which the seed is embedded, will secure its health- 
ful vegetation, and as it progresses in its growth, and so soon 
as it throws out roots, it will reap the full benefit of th^ ma- 
nure contained in the surrounding soil. It is of the utmost 
importance to have the seed planted, so as it may have 
the earth both below and above it when put in ; for in keep- 
ing the seed free from the dung, I apprehend, lies the whole 
secret, which should be particularly attended to." 



10 



APPENDIX. 



TABLE 



Of the number of sets of potatoes, and total weight of the 
same, required for planting an acre at the following dis- 
tances ; each set containing a single eye and weighing half 
an ounce ; the distance between the sets in the rows being 
nine inches. 





— c 

No. of sets per acre. 


Weight of sets per acre. 








. cwt. 


lbs. 


Rows 18 in. apart 


38.720 


10 


90 




19 « « 


36.682 


10 


26 




20 " " 


34.848 


9 


81 




21 « « 


33.188 


9 


29 




22 " " 


31.680 


8 


94 




23 " « 


30.302 


8 


50 




24 " « 


29.040 


8 


11 




25 " " 


-27.874 


7 


87 




26 " " 


26.806 


7 


53 




27 « " 


25.813 


7 


22 




28 "■ « 


24.891 


6 


105 




29 " " 


24.033 


6 


79 




30 " " 


23.232 


6 


54 



On poor soil, eighteen inches between the rows may be 
considered a proper distance, as may likewise be the case 



On Planting Potatoes. Ill 

with early weak-stemmed varieties on any soil. And according 
to the vigor of the stems, richness and depth of soil, the dis- 
tance may be increased to thirty inches, which is wide enough 
for the strongest growers, even on rich soil. 

It is to be remarked that in some varieties the eyes are 
not abundant. With regard to such the above number of sets 
will not be obtained from the corresponding weights ; but in 
general it wiU be practicable, provided sound eyed tubers can 
be employed. — Robert Thompson. 



ON PLAJSTTING CUT AND UNCUT POTATOES 
FOR SEED. 



An important point which potatoe growei'S have taken for 
experiment is the difference in produce where whole tubers 
and cut sets are employed. There is a great difference of 
opinion on this subject. 

A good many farmers are in favor of using whole tubers. 
One cultivator says : " I always use whole potatoes, which 
insures a tolerable crop in all seasons, preventing dry rot in 
hot weather, and rottenness in wet weather, which cut pota- 
toes are so hable to." A Leicestershire farmer says, that after 
many years experience he has discontinued planting cut sets, 
and substitutes whole tubers, selecting small ones, but not the 
smallest ; he adds, that adopting this rule, he has had an 
excellent crop this year, and the tubers are extraordinarily . 
large. A farmer near Birmingham finds his cut sets a total 
failure, and another gives a decided preference for whole 
potatoes, the poor people having lost almost all their put sets, 
while their whole potatoes stood the long drought. 

[From the Genessee Farmer.] 

Mr. Tucker, — I planted last spring, thi-ee acres of pota- 
toes. One half of the ground was ploughed in the fall of 



Potatoes for Seed. 113 

1837, and the other in the spring of 1838 — the whole a 
clover pasture in 1837. The part ploughed in the spring 
had sixty large wagon loads of straw from the bam yard put 
on and turned well under the sod — that part ploughed in the 
fall was well harrowed and cultivated and then furrowed 
shallow, and the seed dropped in drills, and fifteen loads of 
straw and sheep manure, taken from the sheep sheds, put in 
the hills over the potatoes. This piece was decidedly better 
than the first mentioned. The ground was naturally moist, 
and the excessive rains of the springs washed and drowned 
the seed very bad, so as to destroy more than a half acre, on 
part of which I planted on the 4th of July early white beans, 
from which I harvested three bushels of sound beans- Yet 
notwithstanding the bad season and rains, I harvested seven 
hundred and fifty-five bushels of potatoes, mostly pink eyes, 
the remainder a flesh colored (not the Sardinia,) which I 
call long keepers, from their being a better potatoe for sum- 
mer's use than the pink eye. But the object of this commu- 
nication is to give you the result of my experiment in 1838, 
on the quantity of seed required- 



\ 



Row. 


In each hill. 




Yield. 


Qual 


1 planted 


1 whole large 


pink eye 


41 1 lbs. 


8 


2 


2 middle size 




42 


10 


3 


1 do. 




411 


5 


4 


2 halves 




32i 


9 


5 


1 do. 




39|. 


3 


6 


2 quarters 




25^ 


4 


7 


1 do. 




37| 


1 


8 


1 very small 




40^ 


2 


9 


2 do. 




41 


6 


10 large potatoes cut in \ and drilled 


39 


7 




10* 









114 Potatoes for Seed. 

The above yield was obtained from rows 1^ rods long and 
3 feet between the hills each way (measured, not guessed at.) 
The quality numbered according to size, No. 7, decidedly the 
•best, and No. 2 had but few large enough to cook. 

I have for seven years assorted my potatoes at the time 
'of digging, and fed the small ones to my hogs, and then 
in the spring I again select a few bushels of the largest, and 
best-shaped ones, and plant by themselves and save my seed 
for the next year from the product of those selected, and tn 
no event planting a potatoe that the women had left as too 
small to cook. The above, I think, will sufficiently account 
for the good yield and quality of No. 8. I do not believe, 
with Solon Robinson, that whole potatoes are better than cut 
ones. If any person would give me the seed if I would plant 
whole pink eye potatoes, I would not take it, preferring to 
use a half one of my own raising. I- have just received an 
order for 40 bushels of pink eye potatoes for seed, from a gen- 
tleman in this county, to whom I sold the same quantity last 
spring, in which he says, " the potatoes I had of you last 
spring, were planted according to your direction on four acres 
of ground, and I have harvested over 1200 bushels the finest 
I ever saw, and I prefer purchasing seed of you to planting 
those raised on my own ground." By persevering in the 
above practice of saving seed we have increased the size of 
our pink eye potatoes one third, and the yield has nearly 
. doubled. 

I remain, yours, &c., 

S. Porter Rhodes. 

Skaneateles, Feb. 18, 1839, 



[From the Maine Farmer.] 

Mr. Holmes, — Sir, I propose giving the result of experi- 
ments which I made the past season on seeding the potatoes. 



Potatoes for Seed. 



115 



Perhaps your readers remember I last spring promised to 
make such experiments and communicate the resuUs to the 
Farmer. 

I carefully selected a piece of ground of even soil, consist- 
ing of 16 rows of 20 hills each. I manured it in the hill as 
evenly as possible. I then weighed the seed and planted 
eight rows, commencing on one side, each row with different 
seed, in the order observed in the tables below. I then 
planted the eight remaining rows, commencing on the other 
side in the same (jrder, so that if my experiment ground were 
better on one side than it were on the other I should be likely, 
from a combined experiment, to obtain a fair result. 

I shall give the results of the experiments separately, that 
your readers may see there exists a similarity in them. 

I dug, counted, and weighed separately, the product of each 
row, and after deducting the weight of the seed, as was very 
important in order to arrive at a correct conclusion, as the 
weight of the seed varied from 7 ^ to 19| lbs. I found the 
result exactly as follows. 



First Experiment. 





Weight. 


No. per 60 lbs 


Seed ends, 


54 


274 


Middles, 


49| 


316 


Buts, 


58 


317 


Large whole, 


67i 


286 


Small whole, 


62^ 


241 


Cut longintudinally 


57 


234 


Double s«ed, 


56 


329 


Drills, 


6H 


310 



116 



Potatoes for Seed. 



Second Experiment. 





Weight. 


No. per 60 Ibsi 


Seed ends, 


55 


282 


Middles, 


51| 


318 


Buts, 


55 


339 


Large whole, 


55^ 


275 


Small whole, 


49^ 


287 


Cut longitudmally, 


Gl 


274 


Double seed. 


51 


340 


Drills, 


9U 
Combined Results. 


324 


Seed ends, 


109 


278 


Middles, 


lOU 


317 


Buts, 


113 


328 


Large whole. 


122^ 


280 


Small whole. 


112 


264 


Cut longitudinally. 


118 


254 


Double seed. 


107 


334 


Drills, 


124' 


317 



K your readers feel the interest in following out these 
experiments and reducing them to practice which I felt in 
making them they will do it. 



[From the Albany Cultivator.] 

There is hardly any crop about the management of which 
a greater diversity of opinions exists than this — whether we 
regard soil, seed, or mode of planting and culture. The Brit- 
ish Board of Agriculture, with a view to ascertain the best 
mode of managing the potatoe crop, addressed a number of 



Potatoes for Seed. 117 

queries to the principal farmers in the kingdom, calculated to 
elicit the facts necessary to determine this point. The circu- 
lar and the answers were published in a large quarto volume, 
together with the report of the committee charged with the 
arrangement and publication of the facts. The statements 
are so variant, that the committee were unable to recommend 
any particular practice, as that which was most successful in 
one case, proved defective in other cases. The only impor- 
tant fact settled by the inquiry was, that potatoes differ very 
materially, in some cases fifty per cent., in their nutritive 
properties, a consideration as material for the stall as for the 
table. Since the date of that publication, however, very nice 
experiments have been made in Great Britain, particularly in 
Scotland, and by Mr. Knight, and also in the United States. 
From these we draw the following conclusions : 

1. That in this latitude the potatoe is better, both as to pro- 
duce and flavor, when grown on a moist and cool, than when 
grown on a warm and dry soil — better on a moderately loose 
and friable, than on a hard and compact soil. 

2. That they do better on a gi-ass lay than on stubble — 
and better with a long or unfermented manure, than with 
short muck. 

3. That medium sized whole tubers give a better crop than 
sets of very large tubers. 

4. That drills or rows should be adapted to the growth of 
the tops, and the condition of the soil — the small growing 
tops nearer, and those having larger tops farther apart — so 
that the sun may not be excluded from the intervals ; and 
where the soil is stiff, or the sod tough, hills are considered 
preferable to drills. 

5. That if the ground be well prepared, and the seed well 
covered, they are not benefited by heavy earthing ; and that 
plowing among them, or earthing them, after they come in 
bloom, is prejudicial. 



118 Potatoes for Seed. 

6. That the kinds best for the table, are also best for farm 
stock, containing a larger portion of nutriment than inferior 
kinds. 

While upon this subject, we will mention that our friend, 
Capt. Joab Centre, who some tome ago left plowing of the 
deep for plowing of the glebe, has invented a potatoe plow, 
which is said greatly to facilitate the gathering of the crop. 
As soon as we become satisfied of its utility from our personal 
knowledge, we intend to give a cut and description of it. 




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